Numbers of patients with sudden deafness who are complicated with atherosclerotic risk factors such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension have been increasing. We measured the level of high-sensitive Creactive protein (hs CRP), which is approximately hundred-times more sensitive than conventional CRP. There is much evidence to suggest that inflammation evidenced by increased levels of hs CRP is associated with acute coronary syndromes such as myocardial infarction and unstable angina. Therefore, hs CRP has been used to predict the risk of acute events in patients with atherosclerosis.
We investigated the relationship between hs CRP and hearing grade/prognosis in 39 patients with sudden deafness. The value of hs CRP in the hearing grade was not significantly different. On the other hand, the value of hs CRP increased according to the worsening of the hearing prognosis. Even in cases without any atherosclerotic risk factors, we noted a value of hs CRP higher than the reference value in 35.7% of the patients.
These findings suggest that sudden deafness may be caused by circulatory disturbance due to vascular inflammation in the inner ear, and that hs CRP could be a novel marker of the hearing prognosis in sudden deafness.