Purpose COVID-19 associated hearing loss is still an ongoing matter of debate.No original studies exist on audiological effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized patients.The main objective was to determine whet...Purpose COVID-19 associated hearing loss is still an ongoing matter of debate.No original studies exist on audiological effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized patients.The main objective was to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 may affect auditory function in clinically ill COVID-19 patients.Materials and methods COVID-19 patients with moderate-severe disease and without prior history of hearing abnormalities were enrolled from a tertiary referral center,and matched with controls.Participants performed an audiometric evaluation,and thresholds were compared.Results 120 ears from 60 patients were enrolled.Patients with COVID-19 showed worse mean auditory thresholds starting from 1000 Hz through higher frequencies,when compared to controls(1000 Hz:18.52±5.49 dB HL in controls vs 25.36±6.79 dB HL in COVID-19,p<0.001;2000Hz:17.50±5.57 dB HL in controls vs 21.96±7.05 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.010;3000Hz:17.97±8.07 dB HL in controls vs 25±9.38 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.003;4000 Hz:20.16±10.12 dB HL in controls vs 29.55±11.26 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.001;8000 Hz:31.09±12.75 dB HL in controls vs 40.71±19.40 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.030;Pure Tone Average:20.42±4.29 dB HL in controls vs 24.85±5.62 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.001).Statistical significance persisted after adjusting for confounders such as age,gender and various comorbidities(p<0.05).Conclusions SARS-CoV-2 may affect hearing in COVID-19 patients with moderate-severe disease.Results are in line with the previous suggested effects of COVID-19 on auditory system.This study is expected to encourage further research on this topic.展开更多
The developmental origins for health and disease concept supports that early life environment can affect future health balance and disease.Findings suggest that birthweight(BW)can be a useful indicator of processes th...The developmental origins for health and disease concept supports that early life environment can affect future health balance and disease.Findings suggest that birthweight(BW)can be a useful indicator of processes that influence long-term health.In fact,there is increasing evidence associating BW with later-life infections,allergy,autoimmune and cancer diseases.To date,there is no common mechanism to explain BW’s direct influence on disease expression during the life cycle.On the other hand,leptin,a circulating hormone,has been pointed as relevant in many disease pathways,including immunological and oncological,and leptin levels seem to vary directly with BW.We suggest that BW could affect early immune programming through variant early-life leptin hormone levels.It is possible that higher leptin levels in higher BW and lower leptin levels in low BW relate to a shift in Th1 and Th2 responses,accounting for different incidences of infections,allergy,autoimmune and cancers,and raising an integrative hypothesis for the effect of BW on future disease.We hope that our hypothesis concerning the possible role of early life leptin levels on immune programming and future disease can be confirmed by experimental data.展开更多
文摘Purpose COVID-19 associated hearing loss is still an ongoing matter of debate.No original studies exist on audiological effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized patients.The main objective was to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 may affect auditory function in clinically ill COVID-19 patients.Materials and methods COVID-19 patients with moderate-severe disease and without prior history of hearing abnormalities were enrolled from a tertiary referral center,and matched with controls.Participants performed an audiometric evaluation,and thresholds were compared.Results 120 ears from 60 patients were enrolled.Patients with COVID-19 showed worse mean auditory thresholds starting from 1000 Hz through higher frequencies,when compared to controls(1000 Hz:18.52±5.49 dB HL in controls vs 25.36±6.79 dB HL in COVID-19,p<0.001;2000Hz:17.50±5.57 dB HL in controls vs 21.96±7.05 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.010;3000Hz:17.97±8.07 dB HL in controls vs 25±9.38 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.003;4000 Hz:20.16±10.12 dB HL in controls vs 29.55±11.26 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.001;8000 Hz:31.09±12.75 dB HL in controls vs 40.71±19.40 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.030;Pure Tone Average:20.42±4.29 dB HL in controls vs 24.85±5.62 dB HL in COVID-19,p=0.001).Statistical significance persisted after adjusting for confounders such as age,gender and various comorbidities(p<0.05).Conclusions SARS-CoV-2 may affect hearing in COVID-19 patients with moderate-severe disease.Results are in line with the previous suggested effects of COVID-19 on auditory system.This study is expected to encourage further research on this topic.
文摘The developmental origins for health and disease concept supports that early life environment can affect future health balance and disease.Findings suggest that birthweight(BW)can be a useful indicator of processes that influence long-term health.In fact,there is increasing evidence associating BW with later-life infections,allergy,autoimmune and cancer diseases.To date,there is no common mechanism to explain BW’s direct influence on disease expression during the life cycle.On the other hand,leptin,a circulating hormone,has been pointed as relevant in many disease pathways,including immunological and oncological,and leptin levels seem to vary directly with BW.We suggest that BW could affect early immune programming through variant early-life leptin hormone levels.It is possible that higher leptin levels in higher BW and lower leptin levels in low BW relate to a shift in Th1 and Th2 responses,accounting for different incidences of infections,allergy,autoimmune and cancers,and raising an integrative hypothesis for the effect of BW on future disease.We hope that our hypothesis concerning the possible role of early life leptin levels on immune programming and future disease can be confirmed by experimental data.
