Auditory function assessment in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Hoda A Eid; Heba H Eltrawy; Shaimaa E Kabil; Hanaa A Abou-Elhassan; Rania Abdelshafy; Ahmed Aboseif; Abdullah M Albalsha; Fawzy M Omar; Mohamed Heggy; Mostafa A Ibrahim; Ashraf Moursi; Ahmed F Elbwab; Moaz Atef; Ahmed E Kabil

doi:10.1177/20503121231216212

Auditory function assessment in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

SAGE Open Med. 2023 Dec 1:11:20503121231216212. doi: 10.1177/20503121231216212. eCollection 2023.

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine, Department of Chest Diseases, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
² Faculty of Medicine, Department of ENT, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
³ Faculty of Medicine, Department of Community and Occupational Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, Internal Medicine Department, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a multisystem disease with multiple comorbidities. Hearing is dependent on the cochlear functions that may be affected by oxygenation. Affection of hearing is problematic and represents a major concern that should be seriously investigated as an important comorbidity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Objective: To assess auditory status among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Methodology: The current study was carried out at Al-Azhar University Hospitals, Cairo, from 1 August 2021 to 2022, including 120 participants. In addition to the control group (60 healthy participants), there were two study groups: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with respiratory failure group (30 patients) and non-respiratory failure group (30 patients). Hearing functions were studied using pure tone audiometry, and auditory brain stem response.

Results: There was statistically significant hearing impairment in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients in comparison to control group. The hearing impairment was more significant in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with respiratory failure group in comparison to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease without respiratory failure group. The auditory impairment shows a negative interrelationship with oxygen tension (PaO2) and a positive interrelationship with the smoking index.

Conclusion: Hearing affection was meaningfully higher among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients and more prominent in patients with respiratory failure. Hypoxia results in deterioration of pure tone audiometry and increased absolute and interpeak latencies in auditory brain stem response. At every frequency, the mean pure tone audiometry thresholds were higher for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease groups than control group albeit remaining in the mild to moderate area of hearing loss. Retro-cochlear affection was suggested among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as evidenced with the prolongation of auditory brain stem response waves latencies.

Keywords: COPD; auditory brainstem response; hearing loss; hypoxia.