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AIDS : An epidemeological survey of head and neck symptoms and sensorineural hearing loss

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Abstract

Over 80% of AIDS afflicted patients present first to an otolaryngologist with head and neck complaints such as neck nodes, upper respiratory tract infections and skin lesions. Though the desease is rapidly reaching epidemic proportions in many parts of the world, epidemeological surveys charting symptom profiles and etiology are few and far between.

In this article, the author investigated a random sample of (male), AIDS positive jail inmates in West Germany. The overwhelming majority admitted to ENT symptoms. Furthermore, a number of them had a mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss, with a characteristic pattern on pure tone audiometry. This symptom has not yet been reported in world literature, and could possibly be due to immune processes in the inner ear. It is hoped that pilot studies of this nature would help develop a “high-risk” profile which warns the otolaryngologist of the need to rule out AIDS as early as possible.

Further studies in this direction would include increasing the size of the patient pool, detailed audio-metric profiles, and recovery of perilymph for immunoassay from AIDS positive patients with coincidental otosclerosis or other conditions requiring access to the inner ear.

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  1. Univ.—Hals-Nasen-Ohrenklinik, Silcherstrasse 5, 7400, Tubingen

    N. P. Patil

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  1. N. P. Patil
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Patil, N.P. AIDS : An epidemeological survey of head and neck symptoms and sensorineural hearing loss. Indian J Otolaryngol 41, 89–96 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02994221

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02994221

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