Successful Use of Adalimumab for Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis with Autoimmune Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Two Birds with One Stone: Figure 1.

Sensorineural Hearing Impairment and Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Without Traditional Cardiovascular Risk Factors

“…8 In addition, majority of drugs used in the treatment of RA such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, given to patients with more active disease, have also been recognized as potential contributors to SNHI. 15,[20][21][22] Thus, an association between disease activity and HI has not been not consistent.…”

“…There are some reports indicating that anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha agents (etanercept, adalimumab and infliximab) may offer additional treatment options for patients with autoimmune hearing loss. [20][21][22] Hearing impairment in RA is a subclinical comorbid state. Since most of the patients are not aware of their HI and have no clinical complaints, it is important that physicians consider hearing damage in these patients.…”

Use of Adalimumab in Treatment of Autoimmune Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A Word of Caution

“…We read with interest the report of Morovic Vergles, et al outlining a case of autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated successfully with adalimumab 1 . Infliximab has also been reported to be effective in the treatment of autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss 2 .…”

“…However, autoimmune hearing loss has been reported to occur in association with autoimmune diseases such as RA 1,6 . The sensorineural hearing loss in our cases may represent cases of autoimmune hearing loss in association with inflammatory arthritis but this is usually bilateral.…”

Dr. Radic, et al reply

“…We thank Conway and colleagues for their interest in our article 1 . The major thrust of our report was not to debate whether biological therapy is good or bad, beneficial or not, for autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss (AISNHL) treatment.…”