Carotid artery lesions，hemorheological characteristics and their correlations with hearing loss in elderly patients with sudden deafness

Objective To investigate the characteristics of cervical vascular ultrasound and hemorheology in elderly patients with sudden deafness，as well as their correlations with the severity of hearing loss，so as to provide reference for clinical diagnosis. Methods A retrospective study was conducted. A total of 100 elderly patients with sudden deafness admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine from March 2020 to March 2023 were enrolled as the case group，and 100 elderly people receiving physical examination were selected as the control group. Color Doppler ultrasound was performed on the cervical vascular of both groups. The peak systolic velocity（PSV），end diastolic velocity（EDV）of the carotid artery，vertebral artery and subclavian artery，as well asthe carotid intima-media thickness（IMT）were measured and recorded. A chemiluminescence analyzer was used to determine the hemorheological indexes，including high shear viscosity（HSV），middle shear viscosity（MSV），low shear viscosity（LSV），red cell assembling index（RCAI），erythrocyte deformation index（EDI）and serum viscosity （SV）. According to the degree of hearing loss，the patients were divided into mild，moderate and severe groups，and a stratified analysis of the above indexes was carried out. Results The carotid IMT in the case group was higher than that in the control group（P