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[Chronic tinnitus and allergies -- are they linked?]
V Weichbold1, A Schmidt, P G Zorowka
1Klinische Abteilung für Hör-, Stimm- und Sprachstörungen, Universitätskliniken Innsbruck (Leiter: O. Univ.-Prof. Dr. P. G. Zorowka). viktor.weichbold@uklibk.ac.at
Background:
Some neuro-otologic disorders are suspected to have a higher prevalence of allergies than is found in the population. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of allergies in patients with chronic tinnitus.
Methods And Patients:
102 tinnitus patients were mailed a survey containing a list of allergies, and asked to quote any allergy they were afflicted with. Additionally, they had to specify whether the diagnosis has been medically confirmed or not. Findings were compared to those from an age- and gender-matched control group.
Results:
32 % of tinnitus subjects (CI (95 %) = 42 - 24 %), but only 21 % of controls (CI (95 %) = 29 % - 13 %) had at least one medically diagnosed allergy. Regarding all (ie., diagnosed and non-diagnosed) allergies, 49 % of tinnitus subjects (CI (95 %) : 39 -59 %) versus 46 % (CI (95 %) : 37 -57 %) of controls stated to be afflicted with at least one allergy.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that the frequency of allergies in tinnitus patients is essentially equal to the allergy prevalence in the population as revealed from recent epidemiologic studies. We conclude that there is no increased risk for allergies in chronic tinnitus. The lower rate of medically diagnosed allergies in non-tinnitus subjects probably indicates that mild allergies are less frequently diagnosed in the group of otherwise healthy persons.