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Peripheral Auditory Deficits More Likely in Patients With Migraine, Parkinson, Multiple Sclerosis
The risk of peripheral auditory deficits are higher in patients with migraine/headache disorders, Parkinson disease, and multiple sclerosis than in healthy individuals, according to a systematic review published in Frontiers in Neurology.
“From this perspective and considering some shared neuro-inflammatory profiles, we speculate that pro-inflammatory cytokines could pass from the cerebrospinal fluid to the inner ear, with outer cochlear hair cell damage representing an early step in the sequential cascade of inner ear inflammatory disease,” wrote first author Arianna Di Stadio, MD, PhD, of the University of Catania in Italy and coauthors.
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The review included 8 studies that used otoacoustic emission testing to explore inner ear integrity in patients with headache disorders, Parkinson disease, and multiple sclerosis. The studies included a total 291 patients and 209 healthy control subjects.
According to the review, 7 of the studies identified changes in otoacoustic emissions in patients with a neurological disease compared with healthy controls. The single study that did not find any difference in audiologic function in patients with MS compared with healthy controls was the oldest in the review, published in 2012.
Overall, patients with neurological disease had a 14.3673 odds ratio of alterations in distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) results compared with healthy individuals, researchers reported. The increased risk of altered DPOAE was significant at the individual disease level for all 3 neurologic disorders compared with healthy controls.
“We hypothesize that the inner ear might be a novel anatomical entity from which to more fully characterize the pathophysiology of brain diseases, but also a ‘window’ of opportunity for early detection and treatment when the burden of such disorders is small and potentially reversible,” researchers wrote.
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