A study on the influence of hypothyroidism in inducing changes in the audiological profile

Abstract

The study was a prospective observational study. The data collection was newlinecarried out from Jan 2016 to June 2017. The study population constituted of patients newlineof hypothyroidism presenting in the Department of ENT of Chettinad Hospital and newlineResearch Institute. The sampling method is consecutive sampling method. The total newlinesample size was 58. Audiometric studies such as pure tone audiometry, impedance newlineaudiometry, brainstem evoked response audiometry and otoacoustic emission were newlinedone. Thyroid hormone profile- TSH, free T3 and free T4 was done. Significance newlinedifference in mean was calculated using independent t test. Mean values of BERA newlinelatency in millisecond was compared with selected variables, Significance of p value newlinewas taken as plt 0.05 newlineAmong total 58 participants, 39(67.2%) were females and 19(32.8%) newlinewere males. The mean (±SD) age was 38.6 (±9.06) years. Mean (SD) TSH value (in newlineand#956;IU/ml) was 6.47(±0.74) and free T4 levels (ng/dL) was 0.72(±0.08). Mean (SD) T3 newlinelevels (pg/mL) was 1.19(±0.47) None of the study participants had any perforated newlinetympanic membrane. Pure tone audiometry showed, abnormal findings in 30(51.8%) newlineand 24 (41.4%) of right and left ear respectively. Bilateral hearing loss was observed newlinein 18 (31%) of study participants. The prevalence of hearing impairment among newlinehypothyroidism patients as per pure tone audiometry is 51.8%. It was found in newlineBERA that mean (SD) values of Latent I (in millisecond) were 6.28(0.47). Duration newlineof hypothyroidism and gender has been associated with absolute latency of wave I. newline(p value-0.045, 0.031) newlineThe study concludes that hypothyroidism is associated with auditory newlineimpairment with mild degree and it affects cochlea. Strict maintenance of thyroid newlinehormone levels within normal range would help in reducing the cochlear damage, as newlineevident from present study that longer the duration of hypothyroidism more is the newlineproportion of hearing impairment. newline