Lipoprotein Analysis in the Elderly Men with Tinnitus

Yum, Dong Jin; Kang, Jae Ho; Choi, Kyung Min; Kim, Seung Woo; Kim, Choon Dong; Park, Sung Ho

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Tinnitus is the conscious experience of sound that originates in the head or neck, and without voluntary origin obvious to that person. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of dyslipoproteinemias and its correlation with subjective tinnitus in the healthy elderly men (especially in men older than 60 years).
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
From January 2007 to January 2008, we randomly selected 150 men at our office visit. Of these men, only 102 complained of subjective tinnitus. All men underwent pure tone audiogram, pitch-match and loudness-balance test for tinnitus, simple X-ray (mastoid series), blood sampling such as total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglyceride and lipoprotein(a) etc, and if necessary, temporal bone imaging study, and vestibular function test. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS version 15.0, and the p-value was considered significant when less than 5%.
RESULTS
The prevalence of hyperlipoproteinemia had no significant difference between the tinnitus group and the control group. Although there was no correlation between loudness (r=0.008, p>0.05) and pitch (r=0.026, p>0.05) for tinnitus with the serum lipoprotein(a) level, the mean value of serum lipoprotein(a) was significantly different between the two groups (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION
The high level of serum lipoprotein(a) may have influence on the subjective tinnitus as a risk or aggravation factor in the healthy elderly men.