Critical to screen patients with rheumatoid arthritis for hearing impairment
HI in RA is multifactorial. Mechanism of injury and predisposing factors are not clearly understood. Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common type in RA patients with a prevalence of 25-72%. Possible pathologies are including: Synovial destruction of incudostapedial and incudomalleolar joints, rheumatoid nodules, auditory neuropathy, destruction of the cochlear hair cells and drug-induced ototoxicity . "Elderly Patients and those with long disease duration, active disease, seropositivity, elevatedacute phase reactants and rheumatoid nodules are more likely to have HI," demonstrated a recent study by Amir Emamifar, Kristine Bjørndal and Inger Marie Jensen Hansen. Environmental factors for instance smoking, alcohol and noise can deteriorate the condition. Passive smokers are also at risk of HI. Long-term exposure to alcohol affects hearing in RA, causing harmful effects on the cochlear function. Results of pure tone audiometry revealed that RA patients have high prev...