A study of sensorineural hearing loss in hypothyroidism patients and its association with thyroid stimulating hormone levels

Abstract

<p><strong>Background:</strong> The most common symptom of hypothyroidism regarding ear, nose and throat is hearing insufficiency accompanied with cochleovestibular symptoms such as tinnitus, dizziness.</p><p><strong>Methods:</strong> This was a hospital based observational clinical study conducted in Rajarajeswari medical college between December 2016 to June 2018. Patients with hypothyroidism attending department of ENT-HNS that satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. Patients were subjected to pure tone audiometry, thyroid function test after detailed history and physical examination. PTA was recorded and average of 500 Hz, 1 kHz and 2 kHz were taken as the pure tone average.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Results:</strong> 150 patients were included in the study. Mean age of patients with hearing loss was 37.2 years. 84.3% were females. 41 patients presented to us with unilateral hearing loss and 10 patients had bilateral hearing loss. 43 (84.3%) patients had mild degree of hearing loss, 8 (15.7%) had moderate hearing loss. Patients with hearing loss had altered TSH levels. Significant correlation (p<0.001) was found between hearing loss and duration of hypothyroidism, mean TSH levels.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> It was found that hy­pothyroidism affects the hearing producing hearing impairment, ranging from mild to moderate in severity and had significant correlation between duration of hypothyroidism and mean TSH levels with the severity of hearing loss.<strong></strong></p>