Sensorineural hearing loss in insulin-dependent diabetic patients

ABSTRACT

Among patients who have sensorineural hearing loss of unknown etiology, diabetes is one of the diseases to be routinely investigated. The relationship between diabetes mellitus and hearing loss is still controversial. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus [IDDM] compared to control group. In a cross-sectional study pure tone audiometry [PTA] and speech audiometry was performed in 62 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus [IDDM], aged under 40 years, and in 62 randomly selected age-matched non-diabetic control subjects. Subjects with otological and other metabolic diseases were excluded from the study. We applied the SPSS.10 statistical analysis software Chi-square and student's test. Statistical analysis showed that the hearing of the diabetic patients were significantly worsen than the control subjects. The hearing level tended to be worsen in the diabetic patients than that in control subjects, but the differences were statistically significant only at frequencies of 250,500, 4000 and 8000 Hz [p > 0.05]. There wasn't statistical significant difference between sex in two study groups [p > 0.05]. The mean duration of diabetes was no statistically significant with hearing loss [p > 0.05]. The frequency of complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy in the diabetic groups had no correlation with speech threshold [p > 0.05]. There were no significant differences between speech reception threshold, speech discrimination score and acoustic reflex in two groups. We conclude that type I diabetes mellitus can cause sensorineural hearing loss