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Introduction: It is well recognized that hearing is critical to speech and language development, communication, and learning. Otoacoustic emission (OAE) is an efficient and sensitive method to identify subjects at risk for auditory impairment. Infants who require admission to neonatal intensive care unit are reported to be at 10-20 times greater risk for hearing impairment. The porpuse of this study was to investigate the incidence of hearing impairment in neonates screened by OAE. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 148 newborns having risk factors for hearing impairment reffering to Taleghani hospital of Arak and Aboozar hospital of Ahwaz were evaluated. All clients had normal otoscopic findings. Transient evoked (TEOAE) and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) were measured in both ears. If the results of otoacoustic emissions were not normal, these tests were repeated one month later. Patients who did not pass the second stage were reffered for comprehensive auditory evaluations. Data analysis was performed using Kolmogrov-Smirnov and t-tests. Results: 41 and 28 cases could not pass the examining test at the first TEOAE and DPOAE examination, respectively. Also, 23 and 16 cases did not pass the examining test at the second TEOAE and DPOAE evaluations, respectively. These participants underwent auditory brainstem response evaluation and 11 of them had abnormal responses. In 5 cases of confirmed ones, hearing impairment was due to aminoglycoside side effects. Conclusion: OAE hearing screening of at-risk newborns is a clinically beneficial approach to early detection of hearing impairment. Regarding the high prevalence of hearing loss in our subjects (7.43%), prevention of its complications is highly recommended in this population.

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Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that has well known effects on most organs, but there have been controversies in few different studies about the effects of diabetes on hearing. So this study was carried out in 2003-2004 in Kermanshah Diabetes Research Center to assess the effect of diabetes on hearing. Materials and Methods: This is a case-control study. 82 diabetic cases (26 types I and 56 type 2 cases) were studied along with 82 controls matched both in age and sex. Cases were selected randomly, their range of age was 15 to 55 years and their duration of diabetes was more than 3 years. After completing questionnaires, all cases and controls undergone autoscopic examination. Those with other ear disease with hearing impairment were omitted. Audiometery including pure tone audiometery, speech audiometery, and impedance audiometrey with well tone AD19 formed was done on 164 (diabetic and control) persons. Data was analyzed using t-test. Results: Audiometric findings with different frequencies in the two groups revealed that there was a significant relationship between diabetes and hearing impairment (p<0.001). This relationship was more significant in high frequencie, older age and type 2 diabetes, but there were no relationship between control of blood sugar (HbA1c), duration of diabetes, sex, microvascular and macrovasculur complications with hearing loss in diabetic patients. Conclusion: These finding demonstrate that diabetes can cause mild to moderate hearing impairment especially in high frequencies. The mechanism of this effect is unknown. Complementary studies with more patients and with more accurate devices such as Otoacustic Emission (OAE) and Audiometric Brainstem Reflex (ABR) are recommended