Type 1 Diabetes Can Impact Auditory Dysfunction

Do patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) experience higher rates of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL)?

Bottom line
There is a relationship between type 1 DM and auditory dysfunction. Among type 1 diabetics, the odds of hearing loss are higher as compared with controls.

Background: The relationship between diabetes mellitus (DM) and SNHL has not been well established. Insulin-dependent DM is characterized by the presence of insulitis and β-cell autoantibodies, which arise from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing β-cells. The common complications of DM, such as retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy, are mostly mediated through microangiopathy In DM patients, the mechanism of hearing dysfunction (as with dysfunction in the retina and kidney) is not clear, largely because it cannot be assessed by intravital examination. Earlier studies held the opinion that pure tone audiometric thresholds were significantly higher in diabetic patients than in control subjects at all frequencies; however, others thought that there was no statistically significant difference in the thresholds for pure tones between diabetes and controls.

Study design: Search of PubMed, Embase, and Wanfang Data.

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