The influence of congenital hypothyroidism on the hearing organ in children

Elżbieta Reroń¹, Halina Dziatkowiak², Paweł Stręk¹, Małgorzata Kumorowicz-Kopiec², Joanna Kazanecka², Ryszard Ratajczak²

Summary
The thyroid hormones are the fundamental factor which controls metabolic processes, and determines physical and neuropsychological development from the moment of conception through out the whole life of an individual. Moreover, they have a significant influence on the development of the central nervous system and also, as experiments on animals have shown, on the maturation of the structures of the internal ear. Therefore, an insufficiency of the thyroid hormones can increase the risk of hearing loss in children.
The studies included 75 children aged between 3 and 16 years treated in the Endocrinological Out-Patient Clinic of the Polish-American Children´s University Hospital, in Cracow.
Each child underwent hearing assessment with the use of subjective tests, such as pure tone and verbal audiometry (if possible) and objective tests, such as registration of acoustic brain stem responses (ABR), evoked otoacustic emissions (EOAE) and tympanometry.
The studies showed the correct hearing threshold in 119 ears (79.4%) but in the remaining 31 ears (20.6%) a slight conductive and sensory-nervous hearing loss.
The results of audiometric examinations of children with hearing impairment were correlated with the intensity of hearing loss.

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