Does Acquired Hypothyroidism Affect the Hearing Functions?

Purpose: It is well known that congenital hypothyroidism can cause hearing loss. However, conflicting results were found in studies investigating hearing functions in acquired hypothyroidism. Therefore, we evaluated the audiometric findings in patients with acquired hypothyroidism.\ud Material and Method: The study included 58 patients with hypothyroidism and age- and gender-matched 34 healthy controls. Twenty eight (48.27%) patients had subclinical hypothyroidism, and 30 (51.73%) had obvious hypothyroidism. All subjects had a normal otoscopic examination and tympanometry. Pure tone audiometry at 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, 6000, and 8000 Hertz (Hz) was performed in both groups. Blood pressure measurements and the levels of plasma electrolytes, lipids and vitamin B12 were available in all subjects.\ud Results: Hypothyroidism group and control group were similar with respect to systolic and diastolic blood pressures and plasma glucose, lipid, vitamin B12, calcium, sodium, potassium, and chloride levels. Significantly higher audiometric thresholds (dB) at 250 (10 (0-45) vs. 5 (0-15), p