Inner ear involvement in Behçet's disease.
OBJECTIVE
To assess cochlear involvement and hearing loss in patients with Behçet's disease (BD).


METHODS
Forty-two patients with BD and 24 sex and age matched healthy subjects were included in the study. pure-tone audiometry including high frequencies (250-16000Hz) and DPOAE were performed to all participants. Results of the audiological evaluation were compared and correlation between the audiologic status and clinical manifestations of the BD were investigated.


RESULTS
Bilateral sensorineural hearing loss was detected in 27 (64.3%) patients. Hearing thresholds were found to be higher in patients with BD at all of the frequencies except at 500Hz when compared to control group (p<0.05). The difference in the hearing levels tend to increase in high frequencies. Compared with control group, distortion products and SNR of the BD patients were lower in all of the tested frequencies (p<0.05) which indicates weaker outer hair cell motility. There was no correlation between the clinical manifestations and the audiological parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
Even having hearing levels within normal limits in speech frequencies, increased hearing thresholds in high frequencies and decreased signal-noise ratios (SNR) in distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) indicate a cochlear involvement in patients with BD.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Abant Izzet Baysal University Faculty of Medicine, Gölköy/Bolu, Turkey. aesuslu@yahoo.com
Ahmet Emre
AE
Süslü
Mualla
M
Polat
Serap
S
Köybaşi
Yusuf Ozgür
YO
Biçer
Yasemin Ongun
YO
Funda
Ali Haydar
AH
Parlak
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003051:Cochlea / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D018072:Hair Cells, Auditory, Outer / Q000473:pathology; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult