Tziridis Konstantin, Neubert Benjamin, Seehaus Anna, Krauss Patrick, Schilling Achim, Brüggemann Petra, Mazurek Birgit, Schulze Holger
Experimental Otolaryngology, University Hospital Erlangen, Waldstrasse, Germany.
Computational Cognitive Neuroscience (CCN) Group, Pattern Recognition Lab, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Front Neurol. 2025 Jun 26;16:1596274. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1596274. eCollection 2025.
Tinnitus is a symptom often associated with hearing loss (HL). Its development and progression are still not completely clear, as the heterogeneity of tinnitus-related HL data is high. Here, we attempt to investigate whether a part of this variance can be correlated with single or combinations of non-auditory comorbidities using pure-tone audiometric data in a collective of chronic subjective tinnitus patients.
The information of 136 tinnitus patient files was extracted retrospectively. The patients did not suffer from any auditory impairment except a possible HL and tinnitus; non-auditory comorbidities were identified from the files and categorized by their ICD-10 category. Comorbidity classes were endocrine/metabolic diseases, psychiatric/behavioral disorders, diseases of the central nervous system, diseases of the circulatory system, diseases of the respiratory system, diseases of the digestive system, and muscle-skeletal diseases. The pure-tone audiometry data, as well as tinnitus pitch and loudness, were correlated with their non-auditory comorbidity classes and patients' age group using non-parametric and parametric analyses, where appropriate.
Depending on the age group, the number of comorbidities could lead to a significant increase or decrease in HL. Only in older patients, a linear correlation between the number of non-auditory comorbidities and an increase in HL could be found. Moreover, the correlation between maximal HL frequency and tinnitus frequency can only be seen in specific age and comorbidity-number groups. Only some specific non-auditory comorbidity classes showed significant effects (decrease or increase) on HL in specific age groups.
Taken together, we argue that in future tinnitus patient studies, non-auditory comorbidities should be taken into account as possible covariables that might explain the variance found in the auditory threshold development of these patients.
耳鸣是一种常与听力损失（HL）相关的症状。由于耳鸣相关HL数据的异质性较高，其发展和进展仍不完全清楚。在此，我们试图利用慢性主观性耳鸣患者群体的纯音听力测定数据，研究这种差异的一部分是否可与非听觉合并症的单一因素或组合因素相关联。
回顾性提取136例耳鸣患者档案信息。除可能存在的HL和耳鸣外，患者无任何听觉障碍；从档案中识别出非听觉合并症，并根据国际疾病分类第十版（ICD - 10）类别进行分类。合并症类别包括内分泌/代谢疾病、精神/行为障碍、中枢神经系统疾病、循环系统疾病、呼吸系统疾病、消化系统疾病和肌肉骨骼疾病。在适当情况下，使用非参数和参数分析方法，将纯音听力测定数据以及耳鸣音高和响度与其非听觉合并症类别和患者年龄组进行关联分析。
根据年龄组不同，合并症数量可能导致HL显著增加或减少。仅在老年患者中，可发现非听觉合并症数量与HL增加之间存在线性相关性。此外，最大HL频率与耳鸣频率之间的相关性仅在特定年龄和合并症数量组中可见。仅某些特定的非听觉合并症类别在特定年龄组中对HL有显著影响（降低或升高）。
综上所述，我们认为在未来的耳鸣患者研究中，应将非听觉合并症作为可能解释这些患者听觉阈值变化差异的协变量加以考虑。
