Diagnostic significance of subjective techniques for the study of the acoustic organ in patients with primary arterial hypertension

Objectives - to evaluate the diagnostic significance of subjective techniques for the study of the acoustic organ in patients with primary arterial hypertension (HT) Material and methods. 40 patients (n = 40) were divided into 2 groups: Group 1 included patients with HT, group 2 - conditionally healthy patients, examined at the Republican Center for Research and Practice in Otorhinolaryngology, in 2018-2019. The mathematical statistics, Student t-test were used. Results. The patients in the group 1 presented the following complaints: the decrease in speech intelligibility 80% (n=16), difficulty in recognizing the speech in polyphony 70% (n=14), tinnitus 60% (n=12), hearing loss 15% (n=3). Otoscopy in both groups was within normal. Whisper test result was 6 m in the conditionally healthy patients. In patients with HT, the whisper test with familiar multi-syllable words resulted as 6±0.5 m. However, the mono-syllable word hearing in all patients was reduced to 4±0.5 m. Type A tympanogram was registered in patients of both groups (n=40) with bilateral acoustic reflex. High-frequency audiometry showed changes in 1/3 of the patients in HT group (n=6). Monoaural speech intelligibility (multi-syllable words) at the comfortable hearing threshold was not significantly different in both study groups. The binaural speech intelligibility tested by alternating binaural speech at the comfortable auditory threshold reached 80±5% (t>0,95), along with extremely low pass percentage (35%) in digital dichotic tests in patients with HT, that can suggest the feasible central mechanism of the auditory analyzer lesion. Conclusion. HT is a systemic disease that causes an impairment of the acoustic organ at the central and peripheral levels. In addition to the standard batch of hearing tests, it is recommended to use the superthreshold speech intelligibility tests in patients with arterial hypertension.