Correlation of hearing function findings in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus type 1 in regard to age and gender.

Abstract

Ageing of an individual affects hearing impairment and associated diseases can have a cumulative affect. In 50 examined subjects suffering from Diabetes Mellitus type 1, who were divided into groups according to age, gender and disease duration, auditory function was tested by analyzing results of pure-tone audiometry and brainstem auditory evoked potentials. The obtained results were correlated with the results of 30 healthy controls adequately represented by age and gender. Starting from the age group 30-39 we noticed a significant reduction in the percentage of regular findings in comparison with the control group, as well as an increase in the percentage of sensorineural hearing impairment and mean values of hearing impairment (-dB). In regard to gender, we found a continuing and significant increase in sensorineural hearing impairment in the examined male subjects from the group with the disease. The analysis and correlation of brainstem auditory evoked potentials regarding the age of the examinees did not show any significant impact on the increase in the mean values of the diseased and the controls, whereas regarding the gender, we noticed a significant impact on the increase in the mean values of absolute latencies II (Fd/l = 5.1249/9.8144), III (Fd/l = 14.0413/9.3169), IV (Fd/l =7.1413/6.3410) and V (Fd/l = 12.8753/6.1208) waves as well as of interwave latencies I-III (Fd/l = 5.2193/4.9628) mutually in the male examinees. In the diseased group there were significant differences of interwave latencies I-III in men and women both on the left and the right side, M here the values in the female subjects were significantly shorter than in the males.