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patients (90%) who started treatment for ISSHL within 2 weeks showed clear or partial

Many studies regarded the severity of hearing loss is one of the important prognostic factors for improvement of ISSHL(Byl FM., 1984; Fetterman BL et al., 1999; Psifidis AD et al, 2006; Cvorovic L et al., 2008; Ceylan A et al., 2007) However, the standard of severity which could affect the prognosis, was different in each study Moreover, some studies have reported that the initial hearing level had no statistical point on prognosis (Suzuki H et al., 2011; Wang L et al., 2009). In our study, there was no difference in severity of hearing loss between improvement and no improvement groups. However, in patients who started AT after 6 weeks of onset, no improvement group showed higher severity of hearing loss on the day of initial than improvement group. Even if there was no statistical significance, the difference was considerably high (P=0.055). Moreover, in feature selection analysis, PTA on the day of initial visit was one of the important variables contributing the improvement of ISSHL by

Several studies reported that an upward-sloping audiogram pattern was related to better hearing outcomes (Xenellis J et al., 2006; Wu J et al, 2011). Wu J et al suggested that concave audiogram pattern as well as upward-sloping may be a favorable prognostic factor (Wu J et al, 2011). Cvorović L et al demonstrated that flat audometric curves had worse prognosis. To analysis of audiogram patterns, we divided frequency into low (250 Hz), middle-low (500 Hz), middle-high (1000 Hz), high (2000 Hz) frequency and analyzed each pure tone level according to each frequency. In patients who started treatment within 2 weeks, the improvement rate was not related to PTA on the day of the initial visit. Otherwise, in patients who started acupuncture treatment after 2 weeks, pure tones at 500Hz (middle-low frequency range) were found to be important variables to the prognosis for ISSHL improvement. These findings are very unique and our analysis method is the first trial

In conclusion, our findings indicate that AT have some effects on ISSHL even for the patients who failed to respond to conventional therapies. It also demonstrated that favorable prognosis was directly related to the time interval from the onset of hearing loss to the start of AT. The severity of hearing loss, especially at middle-low frequency was also

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