The role of oxidative stress in acute subjective idiopathic tinnitus

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of oxidative stress (OS) in the etiopathogenesis of acute subjective idiopathic tinnitus (SIT). We investigated the plasma thiol-disulphide ratios which were markers of OS in SIT. Materials and Methods: The thiol and disulphide levels and ratios of 65 patients who were admitted with acute SIT and 46 healthy volunteers were determined and compared by the method published recently. Native (NT) and total thiol (TT), disulphide (Ds), disulphide/native thiol (Ds/NT), disulphide/total thiol (Ds/TT), native/total thiol (NT/TT) were determined to investigate the thiol-disulphide balance. Audiologic tests including tinnitus frequency and severity, pure tone audiograms were also compared among the groups.Results: In patient group, NT, TT levels and NT/TT ratio were significantly lower, Ds level and Ds/NT, Ds/TT ratios were significantly higher than the healthy group. NT was significantly related to acute SIT in binary logistic regression model (p0.001). ROC-curve analysis showed that NT levels over 409 mmol/L predicted acute SIT with 66% sensitivity and 35% specificity.Conclusion: Oxidative stress, as pointed in our research by thiol-disulphide measures, may have an important role in the etiology of acute SIT.