Correlation Between Tympanosclerosis and Helicobacter pylori

BACKGROUND: Tympanosclerosis is a condition caused by calcification of tissues in the middle ear mucosa that sometimes results hearing loss. Helicobacter pylori is one of the pathological and etiologic factors in the development of tympanosclerosis. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to show the role of H. pylori in the different aspects of chronic suppurative otitis media using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This case-control and cross-sectional study was performed on all patients with chronic otitis media, candidates for surgical operations, in 2013. They were allocated into the case group with tympanosclerosis and the control group without tympanosclerosis. During the surgical operation, biopsy was done from middle ear and the samples were studied to see if they contained H. pylori using the PCR method. RESULTS: From a total of 19 patients with tympanosclerosis , 16 cases (84.2%) were H. pylori positive, while in the control group 15 (45.4%) cases out of the 37 cases were H. pylori positive, which showed a significant difference (P = 0.002). Age and gender of the patients, ear dryness and perforation size were not correlated with the presence or absence of H. pylori. CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant correlation between tympanosclerosis and H. pylori (P = 0.002). This correlation can single out H. pylori as a pathological factor in the development of tympanosclerosis; however, further studies are needed to prove this correlation.