Whole‐blood filterability in sudden deafness

Abstract

Sixteen patients with sudden deafness (SD), diagnosed on the basis of a battery of audiometric tests, but with no other medical or surgical pathology requiring drug treatment, underwent monitoring of their hemorheological profiles to see whether disturbances in the microcirculation could be linked to SD. Plasma viscosity, the filterabilities, (using a low-shear positive pressure system) through 5-microns-diameter pore Nuclepore filters, of whole blood and red and unfractionated white cells were monitored in 16 SD patients and 32 controls matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status. Whole blood filterability and the filterability of the red blood cells were significantly impaired in the SD patients, which suggests that alterations in the microcirculation are linked, in some way, to sudden deafness.

Sudden Deafness and Right-to-Left Shunts

“…Concerning the circulatory theory of sudden deafness, Fisch et al [8] emphasized vascular compromise to the inner ear. In 16 cases of sudden deafness, Ciuffetti et al [9] likewise reported disturbances in microcirculatory blood flow as measured by blood filterability.…”

Platelet GPIaC807T polymorphism is associated with negative outcome of sudden hearing loss

“…Within the context of the theory of thromboembolism, disturbances of rheological factors in the blood of patients suffering from ISSNHL have been investigated. In particular, reduced erythrocyte filterability (Ciuffetti et al, 1991), high plasma viscosity and high fibrinogen values have been reported to be associated with sudden hearing loss .…”

Management of Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

“…According to that, we suspected that a low cochlear blood flow, potentially due to a vasospasm induced by local or general liberation of vasoactive substances, may explain some cases of reversible SHL. A slow blood flow due to a high blood viscosity and/or an increased red cell rigidity, with sludging, production of microthrombi and decreased O 2 transport capacity, have also been reported in many cases of SHL [26,27].…”