Immunological and virological study of sudden deafness

Thirty-three patients with sudden deafness and 11 controls were selected from the patients admitted to the Department of Otolaryngology, Tokai University Hospital from November 1990 to October 1991. Viral titers were measured for mumps, adenovirus, rubella, measles, herpes simplex virus (HSV), varicella zoster virus (VZV), rhinosyncytial virus, cytomegalo-virus (CMV), and mycoplasma pneumoniae in 33 sudden deafness patients and 11 controls at a 2-week interval. In 20 of 33 sudden deafness patients and 5 of 11 controls, autoantibodies of rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-mitochondrial antibody (AMA), anti-nuclear antibody (ANA), anti-parietal cell antibody (APA), anti-smooth muscle antibody (ASA), and anti-type II collagen antibody were studied. Viral titer study did not reveal any significant change either in the patients or in the controls, whereas autoantibody study revealed a relatively high incidence for ASA in the patients as compared with the controls. The relatively high incidence for ASA suggests that immune-mediated processes may be involved in the etiology of sudden deafness.