The predictive utility of atherosclerosis-related risk factors as predictors of the prognosis of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss in older adults

Abstract

Background There have been few studies to date exploring prognostic outcomes associated with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) in order adults. Objective This investigation was designed to explore the relationship between atherosclerosis-related risk factors and ISSNHL outcomes among older individuals. Material and methods In total, 172 older adults diagnosed ISSNHL from 2016 to 2021 were retrospectively evaluated to compare demographic and clinical test results. Results Relative to healthy controls, ISSNHL patients exhibited significant differences in hypertension incidence and factors related to coagulation. With respect to prognosis, age, onset days, hypertension, the degree of hearing loss, type of hearing curve, fibrinogen and D-dimer levels were significant univariate prognostic factors, whereas multivariate logistic analysis showed that hypertension (p = .005) and D-dimer concentration (p = .000) were related to the treatment outcome of older ISSNHL patients. The area under the curve (AUC) for D-dimer levels was 0.795 (95% CI: 0.724–0.866). When using a D-dimer cut-off threshold value of 107.5 ng/mL, the sensitivity and specificity values of 77.0% and 76.7%. Conclusions The present results indicate that hypertension incidence and D-dimer levels may be presented as an important prognostic indicator in older affected ISSNHL individuals.