CIGARETTE SMOKING EFFECT ON EFFERENT AUDITORY SYSTEM: A CASE CONTROL STUDY
1Bezmialem Vakıf Üniversitesi, Odyoloji, İstanbul, Turkey2Marmara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Odyoloji, İstanbul, Turkey Purpose: Smoking is known to cause ototoxicity, hypoxia in cochlear and spiral gaglion cells and an increase in blood viscosity. It was also found that nicotine binds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and eliminates the modulatory effects of the receptors. Considering that cholinergic neurons in the upper auditory pathways are also located in the olivo-cochlear pathway, our study aimed to evaluate the peripheral and efferent auditory systems in smokers.
Methods: In the study, TEOAE and contralateral suppression of TEOAE responses were evaluated in 20 smoker aged 18-30 who had smoked for at least 2 years and 20 non-smokers aged 18-30.
Results: TEOAE-2000Hz, TEOAE-2800 Hz and TEOAE-4000 Hz values were significantly decreased in the group of smokers. There was no significant difference in the suppressed emission values of the ears and in the numbers of suppressed ears between the groups.
Conclusions: Although the findings obtained in our study show that smoking may cause cochlear effects, no findings were obtained indicating that smoking affects the medial olivocochlear (MOC) reflex. This situation is thought to be related to the fact that the study was conducted on young individuals with a short smoking duration. In future studies, it is recommended to use additional tests to reveal the efferent auditory system effects.
Keywords : Smoking, efferent auditory system, olivocochlear bundle, otoacoustic emission, suppression