Association between hepatitis B and hearing status

S.-P. Bao

Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. baoshiping@163.com

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• Otorhinolaryngology

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to investigate the correlation between the chronic hepatitis B virus infection and hearing status. This study was performed to investigate the correlation between the chronic hepatitis B virus infection and hearing status.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: This research was based on 76 hepatitis-B infections as the case group (including 35 HBV carriers and 41 chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients) and 54 normal cases as the control group. They were selected sequentially and audiologic tests were performed on the participants.

RESULTS: The average hearing thresholds (HTs) of control group and hepatitis-B infection were 10.70 and 12.42 dBHL respectively with statistically significant difference (p < 0.01). Frequency-specific HT of 114 ears in control group and hepatitis-B infection were found statistical differences for hearing frequency ranged 250 to 8000 (p < 0.05), and statistically significant differences for 250, 2000 and 4000 Hz (p < 0.01). Significant differences were only measured for HT at 250 Hz frequencies between control and HBV carriers (p < 0.01), while for control and CHB group, the differences were detected for all tested frequency (p < 0.01). The SNR for f2 frequencies (553, 1105, 2211, 3125, 4416, 4416, 6250 Hz) of the CHB patients and HBV carriers were compared with statistical differences (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the hepatitis-B patients were more prone to hearing loss and that the hepatitis B disease can cause hearing loss. The infection of the inner ear and the pathological changes of the patients with HBV infection still need to be further explored.

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