ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Otorinolaringologia 2017 June;67(2):39-43

DOI: 10.23736/S0392-6621.17.02111-7

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Assessment of audiological abnormalities in vitiligo patients

Khalid M. ALGHAMDI ^{1, 2}, Huma KHURRUM ², Murad O. AL-MOMANI ³, Abdulrahman HAGR ³ ✉

¹ Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; ² Vitiligo Research Center, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; ³ Department Otorhinolaryngology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Vitiligo is a systemic disease affecting pigmented cells throughout the body. However, there are contradictions in the literature regarding the hearing abnormalities in vitiligo patients. The aim was to find possible audiological changes in vitiligo patients and to find any relationship between these changes and various clinical vitiligo characteristics.
METHODS: Complete audiological assessments, including tympanometry using 226 Hz probe tone, transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE), air conduction pure tone thresholds at octave frequencies 250-8000 Hz, and bone conduction pure tone threshold levels at octave frequencies 500-4000 Hz for air conduction frequencies, were obtained from all vitiligo subjects and age- and gender-matched controls.
RESULTS: A total of 249 subjects were recruited (107 vitiligo and 142 controls). The differences in audiological evaluation measures between vitiligo and control groups revealed no significant differences in any of the above measures (P>0.05). Additionally, no significant difference in the hearing threshold level (HTL) at any frequency between the two groups (P>0.05) was found.
CONCLUSIONS: Vitiligo was not found to have a statistically significant association with any audiological abnormalities.

KEY WORDS: Vitiligo - Hearing disorders - Acoustic impedance tests - Auditory thresholds