Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Pseudoexfoliation Syndrome

Purpose: to determine hearing thresholds at sound frequencies important for speechcomprehension in subjects with ocular pseudoexfoliation (pxf) and to compare themwith that of controls without pxf.methods: eighty-three subjects with ocular pxf and 83 age and sex matched controlswithout pxf were enrolled in this case-control study. pure tone audiometry (boneconduction) was performed at 1, 2 and 3 kilohertz (khz) in all subjects. thresholds werecompared to an age and sex stratified standard (iso7029) and between study groups.hearing loss was defined as sum of tested hearing thresholds (htl-1,2,3) lower than theiso7029 standard median.results: the study included 60 male and 23 female subjects in each group. hearing losswas present in 147 of 166 (88.6%) of examined ears in the case group vs 89 of 166 (53.6%)in the control group (p<0.001; odds ratio [or] = 6.69; 95% confidence interval [ci], 3.49-11.79). overall 78 subjects (94.0%) in the case group vs 58 subjects (69.9%) in the controlgroup had hearing loss in one or both ears (p< 0.001; or=6.72; 95%ci, 2.42-18.62).hearing thresholds at each of the examined frequencies and the htl-1,2,3 were alsosignificantly higher in individuals with pxf. although glaucoma was significantly morecommon in subjects with pxf (51.8% vs 22.9%, p<0.001), it was not associated withhearing loss in any of the study groups.conclusions: hearing thresholds at frequencies which are important for speechcomprehension are significantly worse in individuals with ocular pxf as compared tomatched controls. this finding may support the multi-organ nature of pxf syndrome.