Sunwoo W, et al. - Researchers evaluated the characteristics of tinnitus identified in anemia patients with cohort- and population-based studies in a single institute and suggested a management algorithm. They noted a difference in the therapeutic strategy and prognosis of tinnitus in anemia patients according to the characteristics of tinnitus and the severity of anemia.

Methods

• Experts included 50 patients who were treated for anemia and referred for tinnitus treatment in a single institute retrospective study.
• They investigated the characteristics of tinnitus in a correlation analysis with demographic and audiologic parameters.
• They analyzed the data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey collected between 2010 and 2011 for the population-based study.
• A total of 11,402 individuals aged 20–97 years with complete tinnitus-related data were consisted in the study population.
• Using the questionnaire, the prevalence of tinnitus in anemia patients was investigated and associations between tinnitus and blood/urine parameters were evaluated by binary logistic regression analysis.

Results

• As per data, in a single-institute study, patients with non-pulsatile tinnitus were significantly older and their initial hemoglobin was higher vs those with pulsatile tinnitus (p=0.001, 0.008, respectively).
• Findings suggested that in pulsatile tinnitus, age and difference between initial and post-treatment hemoglobin were significantly related to a subjective improvement in tinnitus (p=0.002, 0.016, respectively).
• Results demonstrated that with the improvement of non-pulsatile tinnitus there were no significant audiologic or hematologic parameters associated.
• Authors did not note any significant correlation between anemia and tinnitus in the population-based study (p=0.064).
• In a multivariate analysis, in participants with anemia, age was the only parameter related to tinnitus.