[Assessment of the correlation between taste and smell functioning].
UNLABELLED: There are few studies examining relationship between taste and smell. However their clinical unity is more often indicated. Smell perception abnormalities cause modification in taste of food intensity, disabling perception of taste as a consequence of taste's sniffing failure. Thus disturbances of these senses, which often commonly coexist could cause great discomfort in patients, however taste sense is estimated as less important comparing to smell sense. The aim of that study was to compare the taste perception in patients with normal smell function and patients with hyposmia and anosmia. There was analyzed correlation between the patients' subjective estimation of smell and taste senses and results of gustometry and olfactometry examinations. MATERIAL AND METHOD: there were indicated three groups of patients based on smell examination with usage of Elsberga--Levy'ego olfactometr in Pruszewicz modification. The first group included patients with normosmia, the second--patients with hyposmia or anosmia related to every smell, the third--patients with hyposmia on few smells and normal smell feeling of others. The Bornstein's method gustometry modified by us was performed for all groups. Moreover patients presented their subjective estimation of smell and taste senses. All results were statistically analyzed, taking into consideration results with alpha < or = 0.05. RESULTS: All (100%) patients with normosmia correctly identified sour, bitter and salty tastes, while only 53% of patients with hyposmia and anosmia got similar results. However 76.5% of patients from the second group subjectively estimated their sense of taste as a normal perception. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with smell disturbances significantly more often have abnormalities in taste perception than patients with normosmia and their subjective estimation of taste and smell senses is much more different than gustometry and olfactometry results.