Evaluation of hearing level in patients on long term aspirin therapy
Introduction: Aspirin is a routinely prescribed drug, most notably for cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial ischemia. This cross sectional, comparative study study aims to explore differences in hearing status between the cardiovascular disease patients on aspirin therapy and age matched healthy controls.Methods: The study population consisted of 182 patients with heart disease taking long term aspirin (i.e., for more than one year). The control population consisted of 221 age matched healthy controls who were not taking aspirin.Results: Not aspirin, but the age of the patient was found to be the important risk factor for hearing loss. Conclusions: When confounding factors like age of the patient, hypertension and diabetes were taken into account, aspirin in its antiplatelet dose was not found to be the cause of any audiological problems like tinnitus and hearing loss.