Noise-induced hearing loss in rats with renal hypertension.

Genetically hypertensive rats have been found in previous studies to be more susceptible than normotensive rats to the formation of lesions of the inner ear as a result of excess noise. The present study was designed to investigate whether or not that susceptibility is a direct result of the high blood pressure. Hypertension was induced in 28 Sprague-Dawley rats by placing a 0.25 mm wide silver clip on one renal artery. Systolic blood pressure was measured indirectly by a tail-cuff technique 3 weeks after the operation and again after noise exposure. The animals were kept for one month in noise conditions (100 dB Leq (lin)) simulating those in an industrial milieu. The frequency range was adjusted to correlate to the hearing range of the rat. Auditory sensitivity was assessed electrophysiologically by recording auditory brain stem response to pulses of 1/3-octave filtered full-cycle sine waves. The results showed no correlation between hearing loss and systolic blood pressure. There was no difference between the audiograms obtained from rats with a systolic pressure below 160 mmHg and those obtained from rats with systolic pressures of between 170 and 255 mmHg. These results do not support the hypothesis that high blood pressure is a mechanism underlying noise-induced hearing loss.