title: Hyposmia in progressive supranuclear palsy.
abstract: Previous studies suggested that olfaction is normal in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). We applied the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) to 36 patients with PSP who scored more than 18 on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), 140 patients with nondemented Parkinson's disease (PD) and 126 controls. Mean UPSIT scores in PSP were lower than in controls (P < 0.001) but higher than in PD (P < 0.001) after adjusting for age, gender, and smoking history. For patients with PSP, UPSIT scores correlated with MMSE (r = 0.44, P = 0.006) but not disease duration (P = 0.6), motor subscale of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (P = 0.2), or Frontal Assessment Battery (P = 0.5). The brains of six of the patients with PSP were examined postmortem and all revealed neurofibrillary tangles and tau accumulation in the rhinencephalon, although only three had hyposmia. Further prospective studies including patients with early PSP and PSP-P with postmortem confirmation might help clarify if smell tests could be useful when the differential diagnosis lies between PD and PSP.
authors.affiliation: Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Silveira-Moriyama
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.forename: Alistair
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Church
authors.forename: Hilary
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ayling
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Aviva
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Petrie
authors.forename: Janice
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Holton
authors.forename: Tamas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Revesz
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kingsbury
authors.forename: Huw R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Burn
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Lees
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D009833:Olfactory Pathways / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013494:Supranuclear Palsy, Progressive / Q000150:complications*