Article: Autoimmune inner ear disease: Steroid and cytotoxic drug therapy. (Original Article).

Abstract

The goal of this study was to assess the effects of immunosuppressive therapy on hearing in patients with presumed autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss (AISNHL) and a Western blot assay positive for a 68 kD inner ear antigen. To achieve this objective, we conducted a retrospective review of 39 such patients who were treated with either a steroid alone or with a steroid followed by a cytotoxic agent. Pure-tone average (PTA) at 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 2 kHz, and 3 kHz and speech discrimination scores (SDS) were used as objective measures of outcome. At the completion of treatment, 23 of the 39 patients (59.0%) exhibited a positive response to therapy. The ...

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