الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Although loss of melanocytes from the skin is usually the primary and initial symptom in vitiligo, other pigment cells in the body can be affected. Vitiligo associated auditory problems have been reported is some patients (Tosti et al., 1987). Few studies had studied the audiological manifestations in vitiligo such as Aslan et al., (2010)and Mahdi et al., (2012). While the effect of vitiligo on the auditory system had few studies, there was no studies on the effect of vitiligo on the vestibular system . The aim of our study was to evaluate audiological functions in vitiligo patients and to evaluate vestibular functions in vitiligo patients via VNG. Our study included 30 vitiligo patient had no neurological problems, general health problem known to affect the audiological vestibular system (hypertension-diabetes), family history of hearing impairment, neck or visual problems and all subjects are exposed to factors known to be responsible for hearing and vestibular impairment such as ototoxic drug intake and noise exposure and 30 healthy adults of normal peripheral hearing and no vestibular abnormality (as control group) of matched age and sex with study group. Then the study was divided in to different subgroups as follow : According to type of vitiligo: there were 8 patients of acrofacial type and 22 patients of mixed type. According to extent of area affected according to rule of nine: there were 20 patients with degree of affection less than 25% and 10 patients with degree of affection from 25 to 50 %. In our study, the following results were obtained : The mean pure tone threshold was increased in the study group than the control group, in seven patients (about 23%of vitiligo patients). There was affection on central auditory system in five (about 17% ) of patients of vitiligo The results of DOAEs in vitiligo patients were reduced in amplitude of DOAEs as compared to the control group at almost of GM. The results of TOAEs (the TOAEs reproducibility 70 % and average amplitude) were reduced in vitiligo patients than control group. There was no correlation between type of vitiligo (mixed and acrofacial) and auditory function. There was no correlation between auditory function and vestibular function. Patients with vitiligo had some vestibular disorders like vestibular neuritis and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo This because melanocytes take part in vestibular metabolism through an apparent relationship between the dark cells and adjacent blood vessels and in response to various stressful conditions, these cells have been reported to show increased melanin synthesis. In conclusion, that all vitiligo patients require routine monitoring for audiological and vestibular functions for early identification and monitoring of changes as the disease progress. |