Sign-to-noise ratio for sentences in type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a genetically determined metabolic disorder, diagnosed when the body is unable to effectively control the processing of sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream, due to a lack of action of the absolute or relative insulin, leading to hyperglycemia. Its clinical manifestations of metabolic, vascular, and neuropathic complications. There is a disagreement of opinion as to the pathological changes caused by diabetes mellitus in the auditory system and on the initial site of injury in this system if this is cochlear or retrocochlear. Histopathological studies performed in these patients showed microangiopathic lesions as severe thickening of capillaries in the stria vascularis and spiral ligament, disrupting the transport of nutrients, bleeding in the endolymph, perilymph, and modiolus, decreased hair cells of the organ of Corti, or signs of neuropathy primary the acoustic nerve, such as atrophy of the spiral ganglion, and demyelination of the eighth cranial nerve involvement. Hearing loss in diabetics, classically described, mainly affects the high frequencies, making the perception of phonemes when in contact with a fast-talking or noisy environment. Pure tone audiometry determines the presence or absence of hearing loss but tells little and bad about a person's ability to communicate in ordinary situations of daily life. Speech recognition tests consisting of lists of sentences have been developed, both in quiet and in the presence of noise because they are considered the best instrument to assess the communication of individuals complaining of hearing disorders, because these are the verbal stimuli best simulate the reality of daily communication. Costa (1998) developed in Brazil, the test in Portuguese Sentence Lists (LSP), this being a pioneer in the country and prepared to understand and solve problems involving speech intelligibility, especially in noise. This test allows measuring the skills of speech recognition of a listener, as a reflection of their performance in realistic listening situations. The aim of this study is to evaluate the speech recognition of individuals with Type II Diabetes Mellitus in a noisy environment.(AU)