title: Odour identification as a marker for postoperative cognitive dysfunction: a pilot study.
abstract: The onset of postoperative cognitive dysfunction is delayed in some elderly surgical patients and the condition may persist. Increasing age is a risk factor for both postoperative cognitive dysfunction and dementia. Major surgery may unmask an underlying dementia; we report findings of a pilot study designed to inform this hypothesis. Impaired odour identification ability is a characteristic of the preclinical phase of some neuro-degenerative diseases. This pilot study was designed to establish whether odour identification deficit is a marker for postoperative cognitive dysfunction, particularly in elderly patients genetically predisposed to develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease. We found no association between odour identification ability and postoperative cognitive dysfunction in 53 patients aged 62-86, undergoing major non-cardiac surgery under general anaesthesia. Our pilot study showed that a high number of patients genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer's disease is required to test the utility of odour identification as a marker for postoperative cognitive dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Leicester General Hospital, Leicester LE5 4PW, UK.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rentowl
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Hanning
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009812:Odorants; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011594:Psychometrics
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E