The role of auditory evoked potentials and otoacoustic emissions in early detection of hearing abnormalities in Behçet's disease patients. A case control study.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the types and to assess the role of auditory evoked potentials and otoacoustic emissions in early detection of hearing abnormalities in Behçet's disease (BD) patients. Their correlations with disease activity were also considered. METHODS: Thirty patients with BD and thirty apparently sex- and age-matched healthy volunteers were included in this study. Auditory evaluation included pure tone audiometry (PTA), otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs, DPOAE), auditory brainstem response test (ABR) and cortical auditory evoked potentials (tone and speech CAEPs) for all patients and control. RESULTS: The highest abnormality of CAEP latencies elicited by (500Hz and 1000 Hz) as well as speech stimuli (da and ga) among our BD patients was delayed P1 and N1 waves at 80 dB with greater bilateral affection, as well as significant differences between patients and controls. All our BD patients had a smaller amplitude of distortion product OAE (DPOAE) and S/N ratio at 1, 2, 4, 6 kHZ compared with controls and the differences were highly statistically significant (p=0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Being one of the autoimmune inner ear diseases (AIED), BD has a definite hearing impairment, even in the presence of normal hearing sensitivity, as evidenced by PTA. BD patients had a sub-clinical cochlear pathology which was not affected by disease activity or different organ affection. DPOAE (S/N ratio) proved to be a sensitive test in detecting minimal changes in cochlear pathology and the latencies of CAEPs (tone and speech) measures were considered as sensitive indicators (100%) of early detection of hearing impairment in BD patients.

Regenerative injection therapy and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in primary fibromyalgia treatment: A comparative study.

OBJECTIVE: This study compared the effectiveness of regenerative injection therapy (RIT), i.e. prolotherapy, and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in the treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included 120 female, age-matched fibromyalgia patients. All patients underwent a clinical examination, pain assessment by VAS, assessment of tender points, psychiatric and functional assessment using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire Revised (RFIQ), and measurement of cortical auditory evoked potentials CAEPs elicited at 1000 Hz. Patients were divided into two equal groups; Group 1 received prolotherapy three times, two weeks apart, and Group 2 received rTMS sessions every other day for one month. Assessment was performed before treatment, immediately after treatment, and one month later. RESULTS: A significant improvement of pain measured by the mean score of VAS was remarked in Group 1 compared to Group 2 immediately after treatment and one month later. There was statistically significant difference of mean scores for the number of tender points in Group 1 compared to Group 2 after treatment and one month later. The patients improved functionally, with a statistically significant difference in mean score of RFIQ, in Group 1 compared to Group 2 one month after treatment. However, there was a significant difference in mean score of BDI in Group 2 compared to Group 1 after treatment and one month later. Further, CAEPs showed better improvement, with a significant difference in Group 2, one month after treatment. CONCLUSION: RIT had the advantage in clinical and functional improvement in fibromyalgia patients, while rTMS had better results regarding depression and the cortical component of AEPs. These results might draw attention to the evaluability of a combination of both techniques for a better therapeutic response.