[Subclinical sensorineural hearing loss in female patients with rheumatoid arthritis]

The rheumatoid arthritis is a clinical entity capable to cause hearing impairment that can be diagnosed promptly with high frequencies audiometry.

To detect subclinical sensorineural hearing loss in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Cross-sectional study on patients with rheumatoid arthritis performing high frequency audiometry 125Hz to 16,000Hz and tympanometry. The results were correlated with markers of disease activity and response to therapy.

High frequency audiometry was performed in 117 female patients aged from 19 to 65 years. Sensorineural hearing loss was observed at a sensitivity of pure tones from 125 to 8,000 Hz in 43.59%, a tone threshold of 10,000 to 16,000Hz in 94.02% patients in the right ear and in 95.73% in the left ear. Hearing was normal in 8 (6.84%) patients. Hearing loss was observed in 109 (93.16%), and was asymmetric in 36 (30.77%), symmetric in 73 (62.37%), bilateral in 107 (91.45%), unilateral in 2 (1.71%), and no conduction and/or mixed hearing loss was encountered. Eight (6.83%) patients presented vertigo, 24 (20.51%) tinnitus. Tympanogram type A presented in 88.90% in the right ear and 91.46% in the left ear, with 5.98 to 10.25% type As. Stapedius reflex was present in 75.3 to 85.2%. Speech discrimination in the left ear was significantly different (p = 0.02)in the group older than 50 years. No association was found regarding markers of disease activity, but there was an association with the onset of rheumatoid arthritis disease.

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis had a high prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss for high and very high frequencies.