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Hearing Loss in Progressive Systemic Sclerosis Patients: A Comparative Study

2001; Wiley; Volume: 124; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1067/mhn.2001.115092

1097-6817

Ioannis Kastanioudakis, Nafsika Ziavra, Eudokia N. Politi, Georgios Exarchakos, Alexandros A. Drosos, A Skevas,

Dermatologic Treatments and Research

OBJECTIVE To investigate the middle and inner ear involvement in patients with progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTINGS We prospectively evaluated 34 PSS patients. All patients underwent a complete ear‐nose‐throat physical examination and audiological evaluation with pure tone, impedance, and speech audiometry. In addition, systemic manifestations of the disease and drug therapy were recorded. Finally, all patients were tested for the presence of autoantibodies. The results were compared with those of 45 age‐matched healthy subjects. RESULTS We found a sensorineural hearing loss in 20% and mixed type hearing loss in 3.3% of the patients. There was no correlation of hearing loss with age, systemic manifestations of the disease, presence of autoantibodies, and drug therapy. Ten percent of the patients had patulous eustachian tubes. CONCLUSION One fourth of PSS patients had a hearing loss affecting the middle and mainly the high frequencies. This is a lower percentage than that reported by other investigators. A significant prevalence of bilateral patulous eustachian tubes was noticed as well. Further investigation is needed for a better understanding of the mechanism of ear damage in PSS patients.