Abstract
With the discovery of streptomycin (SM), the mortality of pulmonary tuberculosis declined markedly in Japan. The incidence of hearing loss, however, as an important adverse effect of the drug, has been increasing steadily year by year. Hearing loss induced by SM is sometimes familial, when it is referred to as “familial SM deafness”.
Analysis of the pedigrees of patients with familial SM hearing loss has suggested that familial SM deafness may be related to a genetic predisposition to hearing loss of cochlear origin.
It has been suggested that familial SM hearing loss may be inherited via a 1555 mutation of the mitochondria DNA.
Two patients with pedigrees are presented and discussed.
