Audiologic testing and molecular analysis of 12S rRNA in patients receiving aminoglycosides.

Background: Pathogenic mutations in the mitochondrial genome are associated with a wide variety of maternally inherited human diseases including sensorineural hearing loss (HL). A specific mutation, m.1555A>G in the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene, is associated with predisposition to aminoglycoside ototoxicity and HL.

Rate of false-positive results for threshold shifts during initial treatment with aminoglycosides.

Specific recommendations from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (1994) exist for the audiometric surveillance of patients receiving aminoglycoside therapy. However, these recommendations are not based primarily on test-retest repeatability in often seriously ill patients. The probability of ototoxicity is very low during the first three days of aminoglycoside therapy, and significant threshold shifts can be assumed to represent a false-positive result.