Dados do Trabalho

Title

HEARING LOSS IN SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

Background

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic disease that may affect the inner ear. A review by Stadio e Rally, on the clinical inner ear findings in SLE, showed a prevalence of hearing loss ranging from 6 to 70% of studied patients that may be uni or bilateral and appear suddenly or insidiously. Antimalarial use is recognized as capable of audio vestibular toxicity

Materials and methods

Cross sectional study of 84 individuals (43 SLE patients and 41 controls) with audiometry and impedanciometry tests. Epidemiological, clinical, serological and treatment profile of SLE patients were extracted from the charts.

Results

SLE patients had more sensorineural hearing loss than controls (23.2% vs 0; p=0.001). The hearing loss was seen at 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz and 4000 Hz. No bone conduction impairment was observed. Serological and clinical profile in patients with and without hearing loss was the same (all p=ns). Patients on antimalarial had the same prevalence of hearing loss than those not using it but at 8.000 Hz, antimalarial non-users performed worse than users. (p=0.03).

Conclusions

There is a high prevalence of hearing loss in SLE that is not affected by disease characteristics neither by antimalarial use.