title: Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Non-depressed Essential Tremor Cases and Controls: A Clinical and Audiometric Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients with essential tremor (ET) have an increased prevalence of hearing loss, and depression is a confounding issue for both conditions. We assessed hearing loss in non-depressed ET patients and controls using a questionnaire and audiometric tests.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 34 patients with ET and 45 volunteers were included. Both groups were asked if they had hearing loss, and pure tone audiometry, speech recognition threshold, tympanogram, short increment sensitivity index (SISI), tone decay, and otoacoustic emission audiological tests were conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventeen subjects (50.0%) in the patient group answered "yes" to the question "Do you have hearing loss?" compared to one (2.2%) subject in the control group (p<0.001). The tone decay values of the right ear at 4,000 Hz were higher in the patient group. The number of subjects in which the otoacoustic emissions could not be obtained in the right ear was higher in the ET patients (p = 0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results support the presence of a cochlear pathology in ET and may indicate that ET and sensorineural hearing loss may be components of a common disease process.
authors: Department of Neurology, Medipol University Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors: Nesrin Helvaci
authors: NH
authors: Yilmaz
authors: Department of Neurology, Movement Disorders Division, Ankara University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.
authors: Muhittin Cenk
authors: MC
authors: Akbostanci
authors: Department of Neurology, Kayseri Training and Research Hospital, Kayseri, Turkey.
authors: Nurhan
authors: N
authors: Yılmaz
keywords: Cochlea; essential tremor; sensorineural hearing loss