Low-Tone Descending Hearing Loss Seen With Endolymphatic Hydrops and Sudden Symptoms

MONDAY, Nov. 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with sudden hearing loss (SHL) who have endolymphatic hydrops (EH) are more likely to present with low-tone descending hearing loss, according to a study published online Oct. 21 in Clinical Otolaryngology.

Huimin Cai, from Fujian Medical University in Fuzhou, China, and colleagues compared the clinical features of patients with and without EH and investigated the association between SHL with EH and Meniere disease (MD). The analysis included clinical data from 63 patients with SHL (EH and non-EH, 32 and 31 patients, respectively), with 51 patients followed for at least two years.

The researchers found that the EH group had a higher prevalence of low-tone descending hearing loss. In the EH group, 11 patients were diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) and 15 with MD. In the non-EH group, 24 patients were diagnosed with SSNHL and only one was diagnosed with MD. Risk factors for the diagnosis of MD included low-tone descending hearing loss, EH, and vertigo among patients experiencing SHL. EH also was a risk factor for the progression of SHL into MD.

"In individuals with SHL, gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of the inner ear can be reliably used to detect EH, which predicts progression to a diagnosis of MD within two years," the authors write.

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