Objective: To assess the diagnostic utility of anti-hsp70 antibody screening in sudden deafness. Design: Sera from 27 patients with sudden deafness and 100 healthy blood donors were analyzed by Western blotting (WB) for the presence of antibodies against 68 kD heat shock protein (anti-hsp70). Results: 19% of the patient sera and 14% of the control sera turned out positive, which was not significantly different. Conclusions: The anti-hsp70 WB test lacks clinical utility for diagnostic screening in patients with sudden deafness.