Hearing and cochlear function of patients with ankylosing spondylitis Clinical Rheumatology, 05/03/2012

Kahveci OK et al. – This study demonstrated that there is an association between Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and hearing loss, but the cochlea is not the main source of hearing loss.

• Thirty–seven AS patients and 20 healthy controls were evaluated prospectively.
• Otorhinolaryngologic examinations were performed in all patients together with pure tone audiometry, speech discrimination test, tympanometry, and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOE).
• Disease duration, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) scores, and hematologic findings (CRP and ESR) were also collected.

• Pure tone audiometry findings of the patients and controls were significantly different in all frequencies (p < 0.01).
• Speech discrimination scores were also significantly different (p < 0.01).
• No significant difference was found between DPOE responses of the patients and controls (p > 0.05).
• There was no correlation between disease duration, BASDAI scores, hematological findings, and audiometry findings (p > 0.05).