title: Prevalence of smell loss in Parkinson's disease--a multicenter study.
abstract: Previous data on the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD) range from 45% to 90%. The present multicenter study aimed to provide data on the prevalence of smell loss in a large sample of PD patients from three independent populations. Olfactory sensitivity was tested in 400 patients from Australia, Germany, and The Netherlands by means of a psychophysical olfactory test, the "Sniffin' Sticks", which is comprised of 3 subtests of olfactory function. Out of the total number of patients 45.0% presented as functionally anosmic, 51.7% were hyposmic, whereas only 3.3% were normosmic. This indicates that 96.7% of PD patients present with significant olfactory loss when compared to young normosmic subjects. This figure falls to 74.5%, however, when adjusted to age-related norms. Thus, olfactory dysfunction should be considered as a reliable marker of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany. antje.haehner@uniklinikum-dresden.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haehner
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boesveldt
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Berendse
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mackay-Sim
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fleischmann
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Silburn
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Mellick
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herting
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Reichmann
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hummel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011601:Psychophysics; D012737:Sex Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic