HEARING IMPAIRMENT IN DIABETES MELLITUS PATIENTS AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Abstract

Introduction: Hearing impairment is common issue of old age but certain disease like DM may also affect the vestibulochochlear system. Objective: To observe the impairment in the hearing threshold among patients of Diabetes Mellitus (DM). Methods: This prospective cross sectional study was conducted during February 2017 to January 2018, in the Department of Ear Nose and Throat (E.N.T) Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) Hyderabad in collaboration with the Diabetic clinic LUMHS Hyderabad on 98subjects; the subjects were collected from the diabetic clinic LUMHS Hyderabad. They were included in the study after screening and ear examination.They all were exposed to pure tone audiometry by Audiometer MAICO 39 (Berlin, Germany). The pure tone conduction was dignified at 7 octave wave frequencies at minimum intensity which was perceived and the graph was plotted on Audiogram.Hearingthresholds among subjects were investigated. Results: The data was analysed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Significantly higher difference was observed in right ear at250, 2000, 4000, 6000 and 8000 Hz frequencies (p-value=0.003, 0.004, 0.000, 0.000 and 0.000) respectively and in left ear highly significant difference was obtained at4000, 6000 and 8000 Hz frequencies (p-value=0.000, 0.000 and 0.000) respectively among diabetic subjects according to duration of diabetes mellitus. Conclusion: The hearing threshold difference was significant mainly at higher frequencies among cases