Aim: To evaluate the clinical and auditory behavior of the autoimmune disease patients, particularly Rheumatoid Arthritis (AR) and Systemic Lupus Erytematosus (LES) and to compare the audiometry findings and distortion product otoacoustic emissions in these patients. Material and Method: We selected 40 autoimmune disease patients, 27 classified as had AR and 13 (LES); 95% were female, average was 56years old in group of the AR and 29 years old in group of the LES. All patients underwent a thorough otolaryn-gological and clinical investigation, tonal audiometry and distortion product otoacoustic emissions. Results: We studied 80 ears, in 19 (19/54-35%) we observed alteration in the tonal audiometry in group of the AR and only in four (4/26-15,4%) in group of the LES. Talking about the otoemissions, we detected alterations in 37 ears (37/54-68,5%) from the AR group and in eight (8/26-30,7%) from the LES group. From the total amount of 80 ears, 23 (28,8%) presented alteration in the audiometry and 45% showed alteration in the otoacoustic emissions. Conclusion: The authors suggest that the distortion product otoacoustic emissions can be more sensitive than the tonal audiometry in the screening of cochlear alterations in the autoimmune diseases. We need a long-term follow-up to confirm the predictive value of the otoacoustic emissions on the otologic prognosis of these patients.
tonal audiometry; otoacustic emissions; systemic lupus erytematosus; rheumatoid arthritis
