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Vestibular Hypersensitivity in Patients with Chronic Noise Exposure

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Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that high-intensity noise exposure adversely affects the human balance function. The Tullio phenomenon (TP) refers to sound-induced imbalance which is resulted from hypersensitivity of vestibular end organs to normal acoustic stimuli. Although different etiologies have been attributed to TP, evidence on the role of excessive noise exposure in the development of this symptom is limited. The present study aims to assess the vestibular functions in patients manifesting TP symptom who were exposed to long-term excessive noise levels. This was an analytic cross-sectional study conducted on 17 males diagnosed with TP with a history of chronic noise-induced hearing loss (TP group) and 17 healthy individuals. All subjects in both groups underwent complete otological, videonystagmography (VNG), and cervical vestibular myogenic potential (cVEMP) assessments. The most common complaint in TP subjects was vertigo and imbalance. During the VNG assessment, we found abnormal positional nystagmus and caloric irrigation (vestibular hyperfunction) results in 4 (23.53%) and 9 (52.94%) patients, respectively. Seven (41.17%) patients indicated cVEMP thresholds which were abnormally lower than the normal values ( ≤ 70 dB HL). However, when both VNG and cVEMP results were considered together, the abnormal rate reached 70.58% (12 of 17 cases). Our findings showed that both the semicircular canal as well as otolith stuctures could be affected in TP patients with a history of chronic noise exposure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grant from the Research Deputy of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hearing Research Center, Clinical Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

    Arash Bayat & Nader Saki

  2. Department of Audiology, School of Paramedical Sciences, Sinus and Surgical Endoscopic Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Sadegh Jafarzadeh

  3. Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Shaghayegh Omidvar

  4. Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Akram Pourbakht

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  1. Arash Bayat
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Correspondence to Sadegh Jafarzadeh.

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Human and Animal Rights

All procedures performed in study involving human participant were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All research procedures of this study were approved by the local Ethics Committee of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences (AJUMS), Ahvaz, Iran (registration code: IR.AJUMS.REC.1400.258). The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

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Bayat, A., Jafarzadeh, S., Saki, N. et al. Vestibular Hypersensitivity in Patients with Chronic Noise Exposure. Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 74 (Suppl 3), 3957–3964 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-021-02741-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12070-021-02741-3

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