[Immunologic findings and therapeutic results in chronic progressive inner ear hearing loss].

In a retrospective study of 147 patients with progressive sensorineural hearing loss we analysed the therapeutic results in relationship to the serum tissue antibody. Serum antibodies against heterologous tissue were detected in about 50% of the patients studied. These antibodies were mainly against sarcolemma, endothelium and smooth muscle. One group of patients was treated with corticosteroids. In this group, one third of the antibody-positive patients and 10% of the antibody-negative patients had hearing improvement. The second group of patients was treated with rheological substances (Dextrane 40 with Procaine or Naftidrofuryl). In this group, there was hearing improvement in 17% of the antibody-positive and 20% of the antibody-negative patients. The results of our study suggest that routine immunological tests may not be sufficient to predict the usefulness of corticosteroid treatment. It may be necessary to develope new immunological techniques which are more specific to the inner ear.