The evaluation of hearing loss in children with celiac disease

The Evaluation of Hearing Loss in Children with Celiac DiseaseBackground and aims: Celiac disease is an autoimmune enteropathy. The disease occurs in genetically susceptible individuals by the ingestion of gluten contained grains such as wheat, rye and barley. Celiac disease may be presented with extraintestinal manifestations including neurological findings. Sensory-neural hearing loss may be a neurological symptom of the celiac disease. There are very limited number of reports on this subject in the literature. The aim of this study was to investigate the hearing functions in children with newly diagnosed celiac disease.Materials and Methods: Ninety-seven [56 girls, 41 boys (age range:1.5-17)] newly diagnosed celiac disease patients (194 ears) and 85 sex and age-matched healthy subjects (170 ears) were included in this study. Hearing function was assessed by pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry and otoacoustic emissions measurements.Results: No significant difference were found between the patients and control groups measurements including the pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry and otoacoustic emissions (p>0.05).No significant difference was found for pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry and otoacoustic emissions measurements in celiac patients according to the Marsh-Oberhuber classification (p>0.05).Conclusions: Our results showed that hearing functions of children with newly diagnosed celiac disease were similar to healthy controls. Our data suggest that sensory-neural hearing loss is not a neurological finding of celiac disease.Key words: celiac disease, hearing loss, childhood