Cigarette smoking effect on human cochlea responses

Rogha, Mehrdad; Hashemi, Mostafa; Askari, Narges; Abtahi, Seyed Hamidreza; Sepehrnejad, Mahsa; Nilforoush, Mohammadhasan

Cigarette smoking effect on human cochlea responses

Authors

¹ Department of Otolaryngology, Al-Zahra Hospital, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

² Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Background: Smoking is one of the most important risk factor in increasing of non-communicable disorders, especially chronic diseases such as cancer, stroke, heart and respiratory diseases. Cigarette smoking could damage the cochlea and causing hearing loss. The otoacoustic emission (OAE) is a source of information for determining cochlear responses to sound stimuli and how to change the response of the auditory system in some diseases. OAE test was sensitive to outer hair cells (OHCs) activity.
Materials and Methods: In this study, tried to evaluate a hearing threshold of the smoker group versus non-smoker ones through pure tone audiometery, transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) tests.
Results: The results indicated that significant decrement of 8000 Hz threshold, reduced DPOAE/TEOAE amplitude in the smoker group than non-smoker one (P < 0.05). DPOAE amplitudes decline reflects the cochlear damage caused by smoking.
Conclusion: OAEs test was clinically non-invasive, accurate, and objective evaluation of the performance of cochlear OHCs.

Keywords

References

1.	Haenle MM, Brockmann SO, Kron M, Bertling U, Mason RA, Steinbach G, et al. Overweight, physical activity, tobacco and alcohol consumption in a cross-sectional random sample of German adults. BMC Public Health 2006;6:233.
2.	Hughes K, Choo M, Kuperan P, Ong CN, Aw TC. Cardiovascular risk factors in relation to cigarette smoking: A population-based survey among Asians in Singapore. Atherosclerosis 1998;137:253-8.
3.	Imamura H, Tanaka K, Hirae C, Futagami T, Yoshimura Y, Uchida K, et al. Relationship of cigarette smoking to blood pressure and serum lipids and lipoproteins in men. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol 1996;23:397-402.
4.	Müller BW, Specka M, Steinchen N, Zerbin D, Lodemann E, Finkbeiner T, et al. Auditory target processing in methadone substituted opiate addicts: The effect of nicotine in controls. BMC Psychiatry 2007;7:63.
5.	Fransen E, Topsakal V, Hendrickx JJ, Van Laer L, Huyghe JR, Van Eyken E, et al. Occupational noise, smoking, and a high body mass index are risk factors for age-related hearing impairment and moderate alcohol consumption is protective: A European population-based multicenter study. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2008;9:264-76.
6.	Ferrite S, Santana V. Joint effects of smoking, noise exposure and age on hearing loss. Occup Med (Lond) 2005;55:48-53.
7.	Jacobsen LK, Slotkin TA, Mencl WE, Frost SJ, Pugh KR. Gender-specific effects of prenatal and adolescent exposure to tobacco smoke on auditory and visual attention. Neuropsychopharmacology 2007;32:2453-64.
8.	Key AP, Ferguson M, Molfese DL, Peach K, Lehman C, Molfese VJ. Smoking during pregnancy affects speech-processing ability in newborn infants. Environ Health Perspect 2007;115:623-9.
9.	Liang K, Poytress BS, Chen Y, Leslie FM, Weinberger NM, Metherate R. Neonatal nicotine exposure impairs nicotinic enhancement of central auditory processing and auditory learning in adult rats. Eur J Neurosci 2006;24:857-66.
10.	Cruickshanks KJ, Klein R, Klein BE, Wiley TL, Nondahl DM, Tweed TS. Cigarette smoking and hearing loss: The epidemiology of hearing loss study. JAMA 1998;279:1715-9.
11.	Agrawal Y, Platz EA, Niparko JK. Risk factors for hearing loss in US adults: Data from the National health and nutrition examination survey, 1999 to 2002. Otol Neurotol 2009;30:139-45.
12.	Babanov SA. The epidemiological characteristics of tobacco smoking. Vestn Ross Akad Med Nauk 2006;10:27-9.
13.	Lalwani AK, Liu YH, Weitzman M. Secondhand smoke and sensorineural hearing loss in adolescents. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2011;137:655-62.
14.	Fabry DA, Davila EP, Arheart KL, Serdar B, Dietz NA, Bandiera FC, et al. Secondhand smoke exposure and the risk of hearing loss. Tob Control 2011;20:82-5.
15.	Ohgami N, Kondo T, Kato M. Effects of light smoking on extra-high-frequency auditory thresholds in young adults. Toxicol Ind Health 2011;27:143-7.
16.	Gopal KV, Herrington R, Pearce J. Analysis of auditory measures in normal hearing young male adult cigarette smokers using multiple variable selection methods with predictive validation assessments. Int J Otolaryngol 2009;2009:745151.
17.	Nomura K, Nakao M, Morimoto T. Effect of smoking on hearing loss: Quality assessment and meta-analysis. Prev Med 2005;40:138-44.

Advanced Biomedical Research