The evaluation of hearing loss in children with celiac disease

Background and aimsCeliac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy. The disease may be presented with extraintestinal manifestations including neurological findings. Epilepsy and ataxia are well known neurological disorders in CD. But there are very limited numbers of reports on sensory-neural hearing loss in CD in the literature. The aim of this study was to investigate the hearing functions in children with newly diagnosed CD.Materials and methodsNinety-seven (194 ears) [56 girls, 41 boys (age range: 1.5–17 years)] newly diagnosed celiac disease patients and 85 sex and age-matched controls (170 ears) were included in this study. Hearing function was assessed by pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry and otoacoustic emissions measurements.ResultsNo significant difference were found between the patients and control groups measurements including the pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry and otoacoustic emissions No significant difference was found for pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry and otoacoustic emissions measurements in celiac patients according to the Marsh–Oberhuber classification (P > 0.05).ConclusionsOur results showed that hearing functions of children with newly diagnosed CD were similar to healthy controls.