Research in Medicine

Background : Allergic rhinitis is among the most common respiratory disorders that has been increased during the recent decades due to air pollution. Most of prior studies have investigated the association between allergic rhinitis and hearing loss among children, however, scanty reports address the issue among adults, thus the present study was conducted among patients referring to a university hospital and 3 private ENT clinics in Tehran during 2000-2004.

Methods : For this cross-sectional study, 800 allergic rhinitis patients (their allergy was established via laboratory tests) comprised our case group while 840 non-allergic rhinitis patients who had referred to a surgery clinic served as controls. All subjects were scheduled for PTA, tympanometry and Eustachian tube function test (ETFT).

Results : The mean hearing loss was reported 10±9.1 db in case and 2.5±2.2 db in control group (p<0.0005). None of the subjects had a completely nonfunctioning Eustachian tube, however, 140 cases and 120 controls had partial impairment.

Conclusion : Allergic rhinitis may cause conductive hearing loss in adults, however, nonfunctioning Eustachian tube and otitis serosa are not seemed to be the etiologic factors.