Objective: Takayasu arteritis is a systemic vasculitis. There have been some cases reported in the literature that suggest distortion of hearing in this disease. Patients may experience hearing loss as the first symptom or during the course of the disease. This study aims to investigate disturbances in hearing function in patients with Takayasu arteritis by comparing them to healthy subjects.
Materials and Methods: Patients and randomly selected age-gender compatible healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. Subjects who previously had congenital hearing loss, otologic surgery, severe head trauma, ototoxicity, were exposed to noise, or worked in noisy environments beforehand were excluded. Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA), tympanometry, and Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) were performed on all subjects. The Indian Takayasu Arteritis Activity Score (ITAS 2010) was also estimated for the Takayasu group. Statistical comparisons of air and bone-conduction thresholds and OAE values between the Takayasu and control groups were performed.
Results: A total of 31 subjects were included in each group, comprising 27 women and 4 men. The mean ages were 45.3±2 for the Takayasu group and 44.8±1.8 for the control group, respectively. Both groups were similar in age and gender composition (p>0.05). No significant differences were found between the Takayasu and healthy control groups in terms of PTA averages and OAE values (p>0.05). However, significant differences were observed at the right and left 8000 Hz frequencies (p<0.05), with higher values in the Takayasu group. Additionally, two patients in the Takayasu group experienced idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL).
Conclusion: Hearing function was similar between the Takayasu group and age-gender-matched healthy controls, except at the 8000 Hz frequency in PTA. Takayasu arteritis may manifest with ISSHL.