ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: HIV infection, a multi systemic disease has been identified as one of the causes of hearing loss in man. OBJECTIVES: To compare the effect of HIV infection on the middle ear dynamics of HIV infected and non-HIV infected individuals using tympanometry. DESIGN: A prospective cross sectional study. SETTING: HIV Clinic at University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) in 2010. SUBJECTS: Tympanometry was done on adults (18-45 year old) patients with confirmed retroviral disease (RVD) infection and confirmed non-HIV infected adults (18-45 year old) as the control group. All the patients certified the inclusion and exclusion criteria. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: More women were found with HIV infection than men at a ratio of 1:3.7(men = 21% and females = 79%). There was preponderance of type "B" tympanogram among HIV-infected individuals. RESULT: There was a significant correlation between CD4 cell count and type "B" tympanogram (P = 0.03). The CD4 cell count measured severity of HIV infection while the type "B" tympanogram detected middle ear effusion. CONCLUSIONS: Middle ear effusion is the genesis of middle ear pathology in HIV infected population.
