[Evaluation of risk factors in various forms of inner ear hearing loss].

As in cardio-vascular diseases certain risk factors are held responsible for the genesis of inner ear affections. We thoroughly examined 205 patients, suffering from various kinds of internal ear disorders. Examinations included audiometric tests, medical, neurological and ophthalomological consultations and laboratory findings. Evaluation showed a significant increase of certain risk factors in our patients compared to the normal population. 50.2% of our patients were overweight, 29.3% had a high blood cholesterol, 28.8% had anaemia, and 22.4% had hypertension. These lesions of the auditory system thus share the same risk factors as the coronary and cerebral circulations. In the second stage of the study we looked for correlations between individual parameters and certain variations of inner ear disturbances, eg. sudden hearing loss, progressive or non-progressive hearing loss, low or high frequency disorders. It was not possible to distinguish between the forms of inner ear disease mentioned on the basis of the prevalence of certain risk factors.