A study on otoacoustic emissions and supression effects in patients with vitiligo.
Vitiligo is a skin disease characterized by absence of melanin due to melanocytes destruction.


OBJECTIVE
to study the incidence of hearing alterations in patients with vitiligo.


METHODS
prospective audiological evaluation, transient-evoked otoacoustic emission recordings and study the effects of suppression in 24 patients with vitiligo. Their ages ranged from 15 to 45 years.


RESULTS
21 patients (87.5%) had normal audiometry; 2 had unilateral hearing loss in the high frequencies and 1 had cochlear moderate hearing loss in the left ear. Of these 21 subjects, 66.7% had no otoacoustic emissions, suggesting cochlear dysfunction. Only 7 patients had otoacoustic emissions present in all frequencies (29.2%) and 17 (70.8%) did not have them, and the highest rate of no otoacoustic emissions happened in the right ear of males. Regarding the suppression study, 6 subjects failed, all of them were females, and their left ears were the most affected.


CONCLUSIONS
the findings show that patients with vitiligo, particularly males, have a greater predisposition to cochlear dysfunction, especially in the right ear. As far as the suppression effect was concerned, there was a greater alteration in the female efferent system, particularly in the left ear. Hearing alterations did not vary as far as age is concerned, type of vitiligo and time of disease progression.
Angrisani
Rosanna Mariangela Giaffredo
RM
Departamento de Fonoaudiologia, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo.
Azevedo
Marisa Frasson de
MF
Pereira
Liliane Desgualdo
LD
Lopes
Celso
C
Garcia
Michele Vargas
MV
D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D046088:Hearing Loss, Unilateral / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous / Q000502:physiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors; D014820:Vitiligo / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult