BACKGROUND Adult Refsum's disease (ARD) is characterised by the presence of retinitis pigmentosa, ataxia, deafness, sensory neuropathy, and bony changes. The diagnosis is confirmed by the presence of phytanic acidaemia. Although reduced smell function has been described in ARD, its value in the diagnosis of the condition has not been fully evaluated. OBJECTIVE To investigate the prevalence an...

Anecdotal evidence has shown that dogs, with their acute sense of smell, might be able to detect cancers in humans by picking up the odour given off by the cancer cells. In the past 15 years, two letters have been published in the Lancet, seemingly describing dogs’ ability to predict the presence of cancer later diagnosed by a doctor. Alongside the anecdotes, good theoretical evidence indicates...

BACKGROUND Nurses at The Norwegian Radium Hospital have reported that some patients notice an unpleasant smell or taste in accordance with flushing of intravenous lines with commercially available prefilled syringes. We have conducted a study in healthy volunteers to investigate the occurrence, consistency and intensity of this phenomenon. METHODS A randomised, blinded, crossover study compar...

Although it is well established that certain procellariiform seabirds use odour cues to find prey, it is not clear whether penguins use olfactory cues to forage. It is commonly assumed that penguins lack a sense of smell, yet they are closely related to procellariiforms and forage on similar types of prey in similar areas to many procellariiforms. Such regions are characterized by having high l...

BACKGROUND We evaluated smell identification as a biomarker for Alzheimer disease (AD) by assessing its utility in differentiating normal aging from an amnestic disorder and determining its predictive value for conversion from amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) to AD. METHODS Cross-sectional study (AD = 262, aMCI = 110, controls = 194) measuring smell identification (University of Penn...

OBJECTIVE To characterize the relationship between allergic rhinitis, the severity and duration of nasal disease, olfactory function, and self-reported olfactory symptoms, including fluctuations or distortions in odor perception. DESIGN Assessment of olfactory function and symptoms of 90 patients with allergic rhinitis. SETTING A clinic of a university teaching hospital and research facilit...