Hearing and vestibular abnormalities in primary fibrositis syndrome

A prospective neurootological study of 30 cases of primary fibrositis syndrome (PFS) and 30 sex and age matched healthy volunteers was performed. Results showed that 70% of the PFS patients had decreased painful sound threshold, 40% hyperreactivity of perrotatory nystagmus without neurological or peripheral vestibular lesions, and 27% asymptomatic sensorineural hearing loss at low frequencies. Such abnormal data were not found in the matched controls. These findings suggest that otological problems may be part of the nonrheumatic features encountered in PFS.