Hearing Loss and the Affecting Factors in Patients with Fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE: To find the frequency of hearing loss in newly diagnosed patients with fibromyalgia (FM), and the factors affecting it. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of the Study: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Goztepe Prof. Dr. Suleyman Yalcin City Hospital, Turkey, from March 2021 to November 2022. METHODOLOGY: Patients with FM and gender/age matched controls were compared with pure-tone audiometric (PTA), and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOE) tests after standardised otorhinolaryngologic assessment The subjects were questioned for NSAID uptake and scored with ASAS-NSAID score. RESULTS: There were 33 patients with FM and 32 healthy volunteers. Subjective tinnitus, dizziness, and hearing loss rate in the FM group were 12%, 18%, and 15%, respectively. PTA air and bone conduction studies yielded significant differences between the control and FM group (p<0.05). The statistical difference was pronounced in higher frequencies. TEOE tests showed the FM group had significantly lower scores when compared to the control group at 3000 Hz and 4000 Hz (p<0.05). The median ASAS-NSAID scores were 0 for the control group and 7.78 for the FM group (p <0.001). CONCLUSION: Patients with FM had high rate of audiometric hearing loss of the sensorineural type. The abnormalities were more prominent in the high frequencies but also present in the low frequencies. KEY WORDS: Fibromyalgia syndrome, Hearing loss, Audiometry, Ototoxicity, Central sensitisation.

Hearing loss can also be seen in patients with nonradiographic axial spondyloarthropathies as well as radiographic axial spondyloarthropathies.

Objectives: Hearing loss has been described in patients with radiographic axial spondyloarthropathies (R-AxSpA) but has not been studied in patients with non-radiographic axial spondyloarthropathies (NR-AxSpA); accordingly, the aim of the study was to compare hearing loss in patients with NR-AxSpA, R-AxSpA, and healthy individuals. Patients and methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted with 68 participants (30 males, 38 females; mean age: 39.8±7.4 years) between March 2021 and March 2022. Of the participants, 16 were patients with NR-AxSpA, 15 were patients with R-AxSpA, and 37 were healthy controls. Disease activity and radiological and audiological features were analyzed. The audiological assessment included pure-tone audiometric tests at octave frequencies of 250 to 8000 Hz and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions. Results: Hearing loss was found in three (8%) in the healthy group, five (31.3%) in the NR-AxSpA group, and 10 (66.7%) in the R-AxSpA group. The chi-square analysis showed a statistical significance (p=0.001). Values of audiometric tests yielded significant differences between the control and R-AxSpA group and also the control and NR-AxSpA group. For the air conduction studies, the statistical significance began at 1000 Hz in the R-AxSpA group. It was found that in the NR-AxSpA group, the statistical difference started in higher frequencies. The bone conduction audiometric studies were similar to air conduction studies. Transient evoked otoacoustic emission studies showed that the R-AxSpA group was significantly affected compared to the control and NR-AxSpA groups. There was no statistical difference between the control and NR-AxSpA groups. Conclusion: Both NR-AxSpA and R-AxSpA patients had hearing loss; however, in pure-tone audiometric tests, the abnormalities began in lower frequencies in the R-AxSpA group than in the NR-AxSpA group.

Audiological and vestibular measurements in Behçet's disease.

INTRODUCTION: Behçet's disease (BD) is a vasculitis that involves all small vessels and influences the multiple systems of the human body. This study aimed to evaluate the audio-vestibular system involvement of patients with BD and healthy individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was designed as a prospective case-control blinded study. Thirty-one patients with BD and 31 healthy individuals were included. All the subjects were evaluated via pure tone audiometry (PTA), video head impulse test (vHIT), post head shake nystagmus test (PHSNT) and dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) to check for audio-vestibular system involvement. RESULTS: Patients with BD showed higher PTA scores in both speech and high frequencies. The vHIT revealed pathological saccades, particularly in horizontal canals (right ear: p = 0.002, left ear: p = 0.039). The gain values of the patients were slightly lower than those of the control group; however, gain and gain asymmetry differed significantly in a few canals. In the spontaneous nystagmus test and PHSNT, pathological nystagmus was detected to be significantly higher in the patient group than control group (p = 0.001); but the saccade presence in vHIT and nystagmus in PHNT did not differ among the patients (p = 0.106). In addition, the DHI scores of the patients group were higher than those of the control group (p < 0.001). No correlation was found between disease duration and saccade presence. CONCLUSION: The vHIT was used preliminary for evaluating the vestibular system in BD. This study showed the influence of BD on the audio-vestibular system, in particular isolated horizontal canal involvement was discovered in patients with BD. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III b.