THE EFFECT OF CD4 COUNT LEVEL ON THE MIDDLE EAR DYNAMICS OF HIV INFECTED PATIENTS.

BACKGROUND

HIV infection, a multi systemic disease has been identified as one of the causes of hearing loss in man.

OBJECTIVES

To compare the effect of HIV infection on the middle ear dynamics of HIV infected and non-HIV infected individuals using tympanometry.

DESIGN

A prospective cross sectional study.

SETTING

HIV Clinic at University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) in 2010.

SUBJECTS: Tympanometry was done on adults (18-45 year old) patients with confirmed retroviral disease (RVD) infection and confirmed non-HIV infected adults (18-45 year old) as the control group. All the patients certified the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: More women were found with HIV infection than men at a ratio of 1:3.7(men = 21% and females = 79%). There was preponderance of type "B" tympanogram among HIV-infected individuals.

RESULT: There was a significant correlation between CD4 cell count and type "B" tympanogram (P = 0.03). The CD4 cell count measured severity of HIV infection while the type "B" tympanogram detected middle ear effusion.

CONCLUSIONS

Middle ear effusion is the genesis of middle ear pathology in HIV infected population.