Biography
Biography: Dileep Kumar Rohra
Abstract
Adrenoceptors AR are important targets in therapeutics. Competitive antagonists at ï¢-AR are among the most widely used drugs in cardiovascular medicine. It has been shown that ï¢1-AR are present and functional in inner ear epithelial cells as well as in neuronal cells that are involved in auditory transmission. Beside the presence of ï¢1-AR in marginal cells, these are also present in outer hair cells, outer sulcus, supporting cells and transitional cells of vestibular labyrinth and in inner hair cells. If ï¢-AR are present and functional in areas which are concerned with auditory system, then decreasing the function of those physiologically active receptors may result in defects in the hearing. Thus the current study was conducted to test the hypothesis that patients in cardiology department who are prescribed β-blockers will have a hearing loss compared to patients in the same department who do not receive β-blockers. The specific aim was to determine the association of use of β-blockers and hearing loss. This was a cross-sectional study conducted on the patients visiting the Adult Cardiology Clinic or admitted at Heart Centre of King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSHRC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All recruited study participants were divided into two groups based on their usage and non-usage of β-blockers. Group A were patients taking β-blockers and Group B were patients not taking β-blockers. Audiometry was performed on all the patients. A total of 212 patients were screened; however hearing test was performed on 151 patients. Out of those then 25 participants were excluded because of the presence of middle ear pathology. Therefore, the study population consisted of 126 patients. 68 patients were males (54%), and mean age was 40±11.47 years. Sixty patients were on β-blockers (β-blocker group); and 66 patients were not on β-blockers (non- β-blocker group). There was no significant difference in patients’ age, gender, and the presence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension or dyslipidemia between the two groups. However, cardiac failure and dilated cardiomyopathy were more frequent in β-blocker group. Accordingly, concomitant use of frusemide was significantly higher in β-blocker group, which is also an important drug for the management of these diseases. Audiometric analysis revealed that patients on β-blockers had significantly higher prevalence of hearing loss at high frequencies (4000-8000Hz). This finding of more hearing loss with use of ï¢-blockers was also noted at different frequencies while analyzing each β-blocker separately (carvedilol, metoprolol, and atenolol). Concluding, this is the first study which shows that use of ï¢-blockets on chronic basis is associated with some degree of hearing loss.