Abstract
Olfactory testing is a useful tool in the differential diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Although fast and easy to use, the high intercultural variability of odor detection limits the world-wide use of the most common test sets. The aim of this study was to test one of the most commonly used olfactory tests (Sniffin' Sticks 12-identification test) in an adapted version for a Chinese population of healthy subjects and PD patients. For this purpose, cohorts of 39 Chinese and 41 German PD patients as well as 70 Chinese and 100 German healthy subjects have been examined both with the original and the adapted version of the Sniffin' Sticks test, the latter being designed according to the regional culture. The adapted Chinese version of the Sniffin' Sticks 12 identification test proved to discriminate Chinese PD patients from controls with a high specificity but relatively low sensitivity. Yet not all odor exchanges would have been necessary as the original odors including liquorice and coffee showed an equally high identification rate in the Chinese and German cohorts. The results showed that the newly adapted test could be used as a screening test for PD related olfactory dysfunction in a Chinese population. However further investigation will be necessary to optimize the selection of odors for the Chinese version of the test.
Highlights
Increasing evidence suggests the presence of a long prodromal phase of Parkinson’s Disease (PD), with nonmotor symptoms that may start decades before diagnosis [1]
The results showed that the newly adapted test could be used as a screening test for PD related olfactory dysfunction in a Chinese population
Neuropathological markers of PD could be linked with olfactory dysfunction, as Lewybody pathology was found in the olfactory bulb, tract and anterior olfactory nucleus
Summary
Increasing evidence suggests the presence of a long prodromal phase of Parkinson’s Disease (PD), with nonmotor symptoms that may start decades before diagnosis [1]. One of those highly frequent prodromal symptoms is olfactory dysfunction. It typically occurs 4–8 years before diagnosis, in some cases it can occur as early as 20 years before the first motor signs [2,3]. Together with PET studies that found no correlation between cerebral dopamine transporter activity and odor identification, these findings suggest that PD related olfactory loss most probably reflects a non-dopaminergic mechanism [10]. University of Washington, UNITED STATES Received: June 4, 2019 Accepted: October 11, 2019 Published: November 8, 2019
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