Scott E Barbash | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

Olfactory dysfunction in leprosy.

Leprosy (Hansen's disease) is associated with a high incidence of nasal pathology. Despite this fact, the influence of this disorder on the sense of smell is poorly understood. In this study, we administered a standardized 12-item odor identification test to 77 patients with three types of leprosy: tuberculoid (n = 9), borderline (n = 42), and lepromatous (n = 26). All three types exhibited significantly lower test scores than their respective age-, sex-, and smoking-habit-matched controls. Patients with lepromatous leprosy exhibited significantly lower test scores than those with the other two types. Only patients with lepromatous leprosy exhibited meaningful improvement in smell function after treatment. No association between disease duration, per se, and the severity of the olfactory deficit was present. Overall, 100% of the patients exhibited olfactory dysfunction, suggesting that earlier prevalence estimates based on nonstandardized olfactory testing have underestimated the prevalence of this problem.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Electrical taste thresholds established on the medial tongue using two sizes of electrodes.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The present study determined whether a 125 mm electrode would produce lower and more reliable electrical taste thresholds than a 25 mm electrode when measurement occurred in a medial tongue region relatively sparse in taste bud numbers. We hypothesized this would be the case and that the obtained threshold values would be higher than those previously reported for anterior and lateral tongue regions. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Sixteen college-age subjects were tested twice, once using the 25 mm electrode and once using the 125 mm electrode on each of two sessions separated by 2 to 16 days. The order of presentation of the sessions was counterbalanced across subjects. Measurement was confined to the medial tongue, 0.7 cm lateral to the median furrow. RESULTS: As hypothesized, the larger electrode resulted in lower and more reliable threshold values than the smaller electrode (respective median threshold values = 20.06 microA & 33.59 microA, P = .001; respective test-retest rs = 0.78 [P < .001] and 0.46 [P < .05]). Also as hypothesized, the threshold values were higher (i.e., sensitivity lower) than previously reported for anterior and lateral tongue regions. CONCLUSIONS: The magnitude and reliability of electrical taste thresholds depends on the tongue region examined and the size of the electrodes used. These results suggest that relatively large electrodes should be considered for electrogustometric threshold testing, particularly when lingual regions not highly populated with taste buds are evaluated.

Adult↗