title: Association of Age Related Macular Degeneration and Age Related Hearing Impairment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the association between age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) and sensory neural hearing impairment (SHI).
  
  
  METHODS
  In this case-control study, hearing status of 46 consecutive patients with ARMD were compared with 46 age-matched cases without clinical ARMD as a control group. In all patients, retinal involvements were confirmed by clinical examination, fluorescein angiography (FA) and optical coherence tomography (OCT). All participants were examined with an otoscope and underwent audiological tests including pure tone audiometry (PTA), speech reception threshold (SRT), speech discrimination score (SDS), tympanometry, reflex tests and auditory brainstem response (ABR).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant (P = 0.009) association was present between ARMD, especially with exudative and choroidal neovascularization (CNV) components, and age-related hearing impairment primarily involving high frequencies. Patients had higher SRT and lower SDS against anticipated presbycusis than control subjects. Similar results were detected in exudative, CNV and scar patterns supporting an association between late ARMD with SRT and SDS abnormalities. ABR showed significantly prolonged wave I and IV latency times in ARMD (P = 0.034 and 0.022, respectively). Average latency periods for wave I in geographic atrophy (GA) and CNV, and that for wave IV in drusen patterns of ARMD were significantly higher than controls (P = 0.030, 0.007 and 0.050, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The association between ARMD and age-related SHI may be attributed to common anatomical components such as melanin in these two sensory organs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Shahid Mostafa Khomeini Hospital, Shahed University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hassan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ghasemi
authors.affiliation: General Practitioner, Shahid Mostafa Khomeini Hospital, Shahed University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Malihe Shahidi
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Pourakbari
authors.affiliation: Ophthalmic Research Center, Tehran, Iran; Department of Ophthalmology, Imam Hossein Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Entezari
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Shahid Mostafa Khomeini Hospital, Shahed University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Ebrahim
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Yarmohammadi
keywords: Age Related Macular Degeneration; Melanin; Pigmentary Disorder; Retinal Pigment Epithelium; Sensory Neural Hearing Impairment