Altered taste sensation in newly-diagnosed NIDDM.
OBJECTIVE
To assess gustatory appreciation in newly diagnosed NIDDM patients and to determine whether it altered with the improvement of glycemic control after treatment with diet and oral hypoglycemic drugs.


METHODS
Assessments of taste, peripheral and autonomic neural function, diet, and oral microbiological flora were performed in 20 patients before and after treatment of hyperglycemia, 20 matched nondiabetic control subjects, and 11 patients with long duration of diabetes and advanced peripheral neuropathy.


RESULTS
Median total HbA1 fell from 12.6 to 8.8% in new diabetic patients after 3-5 months of treatment. Electrical taste thresholds, detection threshold for glucose, and recognition threshold for glucose and salt were increased in newly-diagnosed NIDDM patients compared with the control subjects. The dose-response curve to glucose (using a visual analogue scale [VAS]) of newly-diagnosed NIDDM patients was significantly impaired and improved after treatment. By contrast, newly-diagnosed NIDDM patients had normal VAS taste responses to fructose, salt, and urea. Measurements of somatic and autonomic nerve function did not correlate with electrical or chemical taste function.


CONCLUSIONS
Newly-diagnosed NIDDM patients have a blunted taste response, which displays a degree of specificity to glucose, is partially reversed after correction of hyperglycemia, and is independent of somatic or autonomic nerve function. This taste abnormality may influence the premorbid choice of nutrients, with a preference for sweet-tasting foods, thereby exacerbating hyperglycemia.
Perros
P
P
Department of Diabetes, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, Scotland.
MacFarlane
T W
TW
Counsell
C
C
Frier
B M
BM
D001342:Autonomic Nervous System Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000503:physiopathology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003929:Diabetic Neuropathies / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000188:drug therapy; D005947:Glucose / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D006943:Hyperglycemia / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000188:drug therapy; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D017673:Sodium Chloride, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013651:Taste Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013652:Taste Threshold / Q000502:physiology*
D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D017673:Sodium Chloride, Dietary; D005947:Glucose