The association between hearing loss and acquired disorders of the thyroid gland have been an interesting topic for a long time in Medicine. Several researches were based on audiological studies of hypothyroid patients but few authors conducted studies of the sub clinical form of the disease using auditory brainstem response (ABR). AIM: To evaluate whether there are or are not changes on the ABR study of normal hearing adult females with sub clinical hypothyroidism without treatment compared to a group of women without endocrine disease. STUDY DESIGN: Clinical prospective. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A group of 16 patients was analyzed with ABR test and its results were co-related to age- and sex-matches control group. RESULTS: There was a significative difference (p<0,05) between absolute latencies averages of the waves III(p=0,039) and V(p=0,006) and interpeak latencies I-III(p=0,017), III-V(p=0,044) and I-V(p=0,002) on both groups, showing that measures of these latency periods were significantly larger on the hypothyroid patients. CONCLUSION: In sub clinical hypothyroidism conditions, even before presentation abnormalities in subjective pure-tone threshold, we can have nervous conduction involvement on the brainstem auditory pathways as given evidences by assessment of ABR.
audiometry evoked response; hypothyroidism; evoked potentials auditory brain stem; women; comparative study
