Evaluation of hearing in middle-aged patients with diabetes mellitus type 2

Bijan Forogh, Ronak Zeinolabedini, Mahdi Akbari, Elaheh Mianehsaz

Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

DOI: 10.4236/jbise.2013.65A004                

Abstract

Introduction: Involvement of auditory pathway is one of the examples of central neuropathy in diabetics. The purpose of this study is to compare the auditory function of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus with healthy subjects. Methodology: 30 diabetic and 30 healthy subjects participated in this study. For all participants conventional pure-tone audiometry (PTA) and Auditory Brainstem Evoked Responses (ABER) study were performed. Results: In PTA Hearing threshold only at 2, 4, 8 KHz frequencies were significantly higher than healthy subjects but were in normal range in patients with diabetes. ABER revealed that absolute latencies of waves I, III, V and inter wave latencies of III-V, I-V, I-III were significantly prolonged in diabetics. Conclusion: In this study, 50% of diabetic patients had hearing defects in ABER test despite normal hearing threshold and good meta-bolic control. Prolonged inter wave latencies of I-III, III-V, I-V explains retrocochlear and brain stem involvement.

Keywords

Diabetes; Auditory Brain Stem Evoked Responses; Hearing Impairment

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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