Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Pseudoexfoliation Syndrome

Purpose: To determine hearing thresholds at sound frequencies important for speechcomprehension in subjects with ocular pseudoexfoliation (PXF) and to compare themwith that of controls without PXF.Methods: Eighty-three subjects with ocular PXF and 83 age and sex matched controlswithout PXF were enrolled in this case-control study. Pure tone audiometry (boneconduction) was performed at 1, 2 and 3 kilohertz (KHz) in all subjects. Thresholds werecompared to an age and sex stratified standard (ISO7029) and between study groups.Hearing loss was defined as sum of tested hearing thresholds (HTL-1,2,3) lower than theISO7029 standard median.Results: The study included 60 male and 23 female subjects in each group. Hearing losswas present in 147 of 166 (88.6%) of examined ears in the case group vs 89 of 166 (53.6%)in the control group (P 0.001; odds ratio [OR] = 6.69; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.49-11.79). Overall 78 subjects (94.0%) in the case group vs 58 subjects (69.9%) in the controlgroup had hearing loss in one or both ears (P 0.001; OR=6.72; 95%CI, 2.42-18.62).Hearing thresholds at each of the examined frequencies and the HTL-1,2,3 were alsosignificantly higher in individuals with PXF. Although glaucoma was significantly morecommon in subjects with PXF (51.8% vs 22.9%, P 0.001), it was not associated withhearing loss in any of the study groups.Conclusions: Hearing thresholds at frequencies which are important for speechcomprehension are significantly worse in individuals with ocular PXF as compared tomatched controls. This finding may support the multi-organ nature of PXF syndrome.