[Otoacoustic emissions in diabetic patients with normal hearing].
BACKGROUND
Transitorily evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) are a recognised clinical tool for neonatal screening. TEOAE also provide evidence of subclinical cochlear damage in diabetic patients.


METHODS
TEOAE of 60 patients with well managed diabetes (IDDM) and normal hearing (no value worse than 20 dB (SD 3.943 dB), normal ABR) were compared with TEOAE of 58 normally hearing controls of the same age.


RESULTS
IDDM patients had a mean response of 7.13 dB (SD 3.943 dB), while the control group had a response of 11.56 dB (SD 4.402 dB).


CONCLUSIONS
Significantly worse TEOAE scores were demonstrated in the diabetic patients who had normal hearing, as demonstrated on puretone audiometry. This would suggest that hair-cell damage may occur in the diabetic patient even though hearing loss is not demonstrated.
Hosch
H
H
ORL-Klinik, Ospedale San Raffaele, Universita Statale di Milano (I).
Ottaviani
F
F
D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D003051:Cochlea / Q000503:physiopathology; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous