Abstract
Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) is a systemic disease that may affect the inner ear. Objectives: To study hearing function in SLE and its possible association with clinical and serological profile as well as with antimalarial use. Methods: Cross sectional study of 84 individuals(43 SLE patients and 41 controls) with audiometry and impedanciometry tests. Epidemiological, clinical, serological and treatment profile of SLE patients were extracted from the charts. Results: SLE patients had more sensorineural hearing loss than controls(23.2% vs 0; p=0.001). The hearing loss was seen at 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz and 4000 Hz. No bone conduction impairment was observed. Serological and clinical profile in patients with and without hearing loss was the same (all p=ns). Patients on antimalarial had the same prevalence of hearing loss than those not using it but at 8.000 Hz, antimalarial non-users performed worse than users(p=0.03). Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of hearing loss in SLE that is not affected by disease characteristics neither by antimalarial use.
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