The predictive utility of atherosclerosis-related risk factors as predictors of the prognosis of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss in older adults

Abstract

Background

There have been few studies to date exploring prognostic outcomes associated with idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) in order adults.

Objective

This investigation was designed to explore the relationship between atherosclerosis-related risk factors and ISSNHL outcomes among older individuals.

Material and methods

In total, 172 older adults diagnosed ISSNHL from 2016 to 2021 were retrospectively evaluated to compare demographic and clinical test results.

Results

Relative to healthy controls, ISSNHL patients exhibited significant differences in hypertension incidence and factors related to coagulation. With respect to prognosis, age, onset days, hypertension, the degree of hearing loss, type of hearing curve, fibrinogen and D-dimer levels were significant univariate prognostic factors, whereas multivariate logistic analysis showed that hypertension (p = .005) and D-dimer concentration (p = .000) were related to the treatment outcome of older ISSNHL patients. The area under the curve (AUC) for D-dimer levels was 0.795 (95% CI: 0.724–0.866). When using a D-dimer cut-off threshold value of 107.5 ng/mL, the sensitivity and specificity values of 77.0% and 76.7%.

Conclusions

The present results indicate that hypertension incidence and D-dimer levels may be presented as an important prognostic indicator in older affected ISSNHL individuals.

Chinese Abstract

背景：迄今为止, 很少有研究探索老年人特发性突发性感音神经性听力损失 (ISSNHL)的预后结果。

目的：本研究旨在探讨老年人动脉粥样硬化相关危险因素与ISSNHL结果之间的关系。

材料和方法：对 2016 年至 2021 年诊断为 ISSNHL 的共 172 名老年人进行了回顾性评估, 以比较人口统计和临床测试结果。

结果：相对于健康对照组, ISSNHL 患者在高血压发生率和凝血相关因素方面表现出显著差异。 关于预后, 年龄、发病天数、高血压、听力损失程度、听力曲线类型、纤维蛋白原和 D-二聚体水平是显着的单变量预后因素, 而多变量逻辑分析显示高血压 (p = .005)和 D-二聚体浓度 (p =.000) 与老年 ISSNHL 患者的治疗结果相关。D-二聚体水平的曲线下面积 (AUC) 为 0.795（95% CI：0.724–0.866）。 当使用D-二聚体截止阈值107.5 ng/mL, 灵敏度和特异性值为 77.0%和 76.7%。

结论：目前的结果表明, 高血压发病率和 D-二聚体水平可能是老年 ISSNHL 患者的重要预后指标。

Keywords:

• Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss
• prognosis
• older individuals
• D-dimer
• hypertension

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the programs of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (NO. 2020YFC2005206).