Endocrine Abstracts

Objectives: This study was undertaken to ascertain the prevalence of hearing loss (HL) in patients with Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) and to understand its relationship with diabetic neuropathy.

Materials and Methods: Patients between the ages of 30 to 60 years (both ages inclusive) with T2DM were recruited and divided in two groups. Group 1 with moderate to severe distal sensory-motor neuropathy (Michigan Diabetic Neuropathy Score >12) or Group 2 were those with no neuropathy (MDNS score <6). Patients with mild neuropathy (MDNS score 6–12), history of intake of ototoxic drugs, ear surgery or infections, neurological disorders, Meniere’s disease, head injuries, renal failure and with occupational exposure to loud noises were excluded. After informed consent HL was assessed with pure tone audiometry (PTA) for various frequencies (250Hz to 8000Hz).

Results: Of the 200 patients recruited (151 with neuropathy and 49 without) the prevalence of any hearing loss (AHL) was overall 81% with 85.5% prevalence among those with neuropathy and 66.6% among those without neuropathy (P−0.004). The prevalence of clinical significant hearing loss (CSHL) (moderate and above) was 28.5% (overall), 30.5% (with neuropathy) and 22.8% (without neuropathy (P−0.28). On univariate logistic regression with AHL in any ear as outcome, age, gender, taking regular ACE inhibitors, MDNS score, MDNS grade and presence of neuropathy was found to have significant correlation.On multivariate binary logistic regression with AHL in any one ear as outcome, age, gender, taking regular ACE inhibitors and MDNS score was found to have significant correlation.

Conclusions: Four out of five adult patients (30–60 years) with T2DM had some degree of HL on PTA. Of these one in three had CSHL. In addition to age and gender there was some association of HL with the degree of diabetic neuropathy.