Hearing impairment in patients with alopecia areata

This study investigated hearing impairments in 42 patients with alopecia areata compared to 42 healthy controls. Results showed that 59.5% of alopecia areata patients had normal otoacoustic emissions compared to 100% of controls, indicating a significant difference (P = 0.02). Patients also had higher speech recognition thresholds and lower speech discrimination scores (P < 0.001), though the most comfortable speech level was similar between groups (P = 0.06). The greatest hearing threshold increase was at 8000 Hz, with no significant differences at 500 and 1000 Hz. Some patients showed no vestibular evoked myogenic potential response, but amplitudes did not significantly differ from controls (P = 0.097). The study suggests that follicular melanocytes involved in alopecia areata may affect inner ear function, leading to hearing loss, although the duration and severity of alopecia areata were not significantly related to hearing loss. Limitations include the small sample size and qualitative otoacoustic emission measurements.