Effect of glycated hemoglobin over auditory acuity in type 2 diabetes mellitus

<p>Diabetes mellitus induced-hearing loss has been observed since many years. Long standing diabetes with sustained hyperglycemia results in sensorineural hearing loss. Chronic Hyperglycemia is the underlying pathology in producing diabetic complications.</p> <p><strong>Aim of the study:</strong> Diabetes Mellitus is a multi-system disorder of impaired carbohydrate, fat, protein metabolism caused by either lack of insulin secretion 1 2 (Type 1) or decreased sensitivity of tissues to insulin (Type 2) Long standing diabetes may be associated with hearing loss. The pathologic changes that 3. accompany diabetes injure the vasculature of inner ear, resulting in sensorineural hearing impairment The probable mechanism for hearing loss in diabetes is microangiopathy of inner ear resulting in thickened stria vascularis and secondary degeneration of eighth cranial nerve, neuropathy of cochlear nerve or a 4 combination of outer hair dysfunctions and disruption of endolymphatic potentials. The main objective of this study was to study the auditory thresholds of uncontrolled diabetic subjects and controlled diabetic subjects with Pure Tone Audiometry and compare the differences regarding HbA c levels. 1</p> <p><strong>Material and methods:</strong> Study was conducted in Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College Hospital after getting informed consent. It was a hospital-based case control study comprising 50 uncontrolled type 2 diabetic subjects and 50 controlled type 2 diabetic subjects. The data collected was entered and analysed using epi-info (version 3.4.3) software package. The proportion of pure tone audiometry in uncontrolled and controlled diabetic patients was calculated. Parametric test was used to find the significance of auditory thresholds between the two groups. The statistical software namely SPSS was used for the analysis of the data and Microsoft excel used to generate graphs tables etc.</p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>Significant effect was noted in uncontrolled type 2 diabetic subjects regarding HbA c levels on audiometric thresholds using Pure Tone Audiometry 1 in all higher frequencies when compared to controlled type 2 diabetic subjects.&nbsp;</p>