title: The Relationship between Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Olfactory Function.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Olfactory dysfunction is a common symptom of many neurodegenerative diseases, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a late-onset neurodegenerative disease.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate olfactory functions in patients with AMD.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 69 subjects with AMD and 69 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled. After a complete ophthalmic evaluation, the AMD patients were subclassified as early- and late-stage AMD. Psychophysical testing of olfactory function was performed using the validated Sniffin' Sticks test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This study was carried out in 138 subjects, with a mean age of 74.3 ± 8.9 years (range 51-89). The current investigation showed the following two major findings: (1) patients with AMD had decreased olfactory abilities, especially in odor discrimination and odor identification, even at early stages compared to controls, whereas patients had decreased olfactory abilities in all subtasks of olfactory testings in advanced stages of AMD disease, and (2) as the visual acuity of AMD patients decreased, the olfactory abilities of these patients worsened.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated that AMD had significant negative effects on all orthonasal olfactory tasks, particularly in advanced stages. Similar to other neurodegenerative diseases, odor discrimination and identification seemed to be more affected than odor detection threshold tasks.
authors: Department of Ophthalmology, GATA Haydarpaşa Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors: Taner
authors: T
authors: Kar
authors: Yildiray
authors: Y
authors: Yildirim
authors: Aytuğ
authors: A
authors: Altundağ
authors: Murat
authors: M
authors: Sonmez
authors: Abdullah
authors: A
authors: Kaya
authors: Kadir
authors: K
authors: Colakoglu
authors: Hakan
authors: H
authors: Tekeli
authors: Melih
authors: M
authors: Cayonu
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Hummel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009812:Odorants; D055696:Olfactory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology