Hearing loss and pathogenesis in Graves' disease

Abstract

Objective To investigate the hearing loss of Graves patients and explore the possible pathogenesis. Methods A total of 39 Graves patients and 22 healthy control subjects who were initially admitted to the outpatient and inpatient departments of our hospital from September 2019 to March 2021 were enrolled in this study. Hearing Handicap Inventory Screening Version (HHIE-S) was used to assess whether the subjects had conscious hearing loss. Meanwhile, thyroid hormone and thyrotropin receptor antibody (TRAb) levels were detected, and pure tone audiometry and acoustic conductance were performed to judge the correlations of hearing loss with the hormone and TRAb levels. Results HHIE-S scale showed that 17 cases (43.6%) of 39 Graves patients had hearing loss, and 23 cases (59.0%) had increased pure tone threshold. There was no statistical difference in the average auditory threshold of all subjects. The hearing threshold was significantly higher in the Graves group than the healthy control group at frequencies other than 1 000 Hz (P < 0.05). At 4 000 Hz and 8 000 Hz, the thresholds of Graves eye disease group was significantly higher than that of Graves non-eye disease group (P < 0.01). No significant correlation was found of pure tone threshold with thyroid and TRAb levels in Graves patients. Conclusion Graves patients have no obvious conscious hearing loss at all detection frequencies except 1 000 Hz, and the high-frequency hearing loss at 4 000 Hz and 8 000Hz is more obvious in those with Graves eye disease.

Keywords

• graves' disease
• hearing loss
• pure tone audiometry
• graves' ophthalmopathy