Patients with ankylosing spondylitis at risk of hearing loss

The likelihood of having hearing loss (HL) is higher among patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) than those without, according to a new study.

In addition, AS patients have significantly greater hearing thresholds across all conventional and extended pure-tone frequencies, which may manifest as slight to moderate HL.

In this study, the investigators sought to determine the prevalence of HL in AS patients and to describe frequency-specific hearing threshold changes in this patient population compared to those without AS. They performed a systematic review of four databases, namely PubMed, Ovid Medline, Scopus, and Cochrane) to identify studies evaluating HL in patients with AS.

A meta-analysis was then conducted to identify the overall prevalence rate and odds ratio (OR) of HL, as well as to compare mean differences in frequency-specific hearing thresholds between patients with and without AS.

Fourteen studies including a total of 1,083 patients (598 with AS vs 485 without AS) met the eligibility criteria. The pooled prevalence of HL in AS patients was 42.4 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 29.2–56.2).

Patients with AS had significantly higher odds of developing HL than those without (OR, 4.65, 95 percent CI, 2.73–7.91). Mean differences in pure-tone hearing thresholds ranged from 0–5 dB for frequencies of 0.25–4 kHz, and from 5–15 dB for frequencies of 6–16 kHz.

“Results of this systematic review might justify increased attention to audiologic manifestations of patients with AS,” the investigators said.