Rochester study targets hearing loss in HIV/AIDS patients
A new five-year Rochester study of hearing loss among people with HIV or AIDS will explore an issue documented so far only in scattered, unconfirmed reports.
At University of Rochester Medical Center, specialists in hearing loss and specialists in HIV and the immune system are teaming up to measure the hearing of people with and without HIV, supported by a nearly $2 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
“If there is hearing impairment, it could be related to the disease itself; it might be related to infections that our patients with AIDS are prone to getting; or it might be related to the medications used to treat the disease,” said study leader Dr. Amneris Luque, director of Strong Memorial Hospital’s AIDS Clinic, which provides care for more than 900 patients.
Some scientists have found evidence that people with HIV/AIDS may age prematurely, so they will look at whether that plays a role in their hearing. Hearing loss also could be unrelated to HIV, caused by such things as heredity, noise exposure or medications for other conditions.
Luque will work closely with hearing researcher Robert Frisina, whose team is based at the medical center and at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology.
The study will periodically test the hearing of 360 participants who have AIDS or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and compare results to a database of similar hearing tests done on more than 1,400 healthy people.
