Hearing Impairment in Senile Dementia of Alzhaimer's Type *

ObjectivesTo evaluate peripheral auditory dysfunction in senile dementia of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and its relationship with cognitive dysfunction.MethodsPure tone thresholds, word recognition scores (WRS), acoustic immittance and auditory brain-stem responses (ABR) were tested to evaluate the auditory function in 43 AD patients and 50 normal subjects. The test reliability in these subjects was examined before the test results were evaluated for their correlation with the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score.ResultsThere were no statistically significant differences in peripheral auditory functions between the two ears in the tested subjects or between the two groups when the auditometric results of the right ear were compared (P > 0.05). Also, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups when audiometric test reliability, acoustic impedance and ABR results were compared (P > 0.05).ConclutionsThe pure tone audiometric threshold and WRS in AD patients are similar to those in comparable non-AD senile subjects. Peripheral auditory dysfunction is not related to cognitive dysfunction.