2013 Volume 136 Pages 95-98
We experienced a case of bilateral sudden severe sensorineural hearing loss with vertigo in a 33-year-old woman.The pure tone average (PTA) at 500 Hz, 1 kHz and 2 kHz was 68.75 dB on right side and 72.5 dB on left side. Her hearing level improved for a short time although she had no particular treatment. She was strongly positive for anti-nuclear antibodies, and was previously weakly positive for an anti-cardiolipin antibody. Two months previously, in another hospital, she had therefore undergone low-dose steroid and anti-thrombus treatment under the suspected diagnosis of anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome (APS), although there had been no past history of thrombosis. After first improving, she has had repeated incidents of hearing loss and various constitutional symptoms, which have however not yet resulted in a definitive diagnosis. We believed that this inner ear disorder was related to an autoimmune disease.
