BACKGROUND: Olfactory testing is a useful tool in the differential diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Although fast and easy to use, the high intercultural variability of odor detection limits the world-wide use of the most common test sets. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to test one of the most commonly used olfactory tests (Sniffin' Sticks 12-identification test) in an adapted version for a Chinese population of healthy subjects and PD patients. METHODS: For this purpose, cohorts of 39 Chinese and 41 German PD patients as well as 70 Chinese and 100 German healthy subjects have been examined both with the original and the adapted version of the Sniffin' Sticks test, the latter being designed according to the regional culture. RESULTS: The adapted Chinese version of the Sniffin' Sticks 12 identification test proved to discriminate Chinese PD patients from controls with a high specificity but relatively low sensitivity. Yet not all odor exchanges would have been necessary as the original odors including liquorice and coffee showed an equally high identification rate in the Chinese and German cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the newly adapted test could be used as a screening test for PD related olfactory dysfunction in a Chinese population. However further investigation will be necessary to optimize the selection of odors for the Chinese version of the test.
BACKGROUND: Olfactory testing is a useful tool in the differential diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Although fast and easy to use, the high intercultural variability of odor detection limits the world-wide use of the most common test sets. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to test one of the most commonly used olfactory tests (Sniffin' Sticks 12-identification test) in an adapted version for a Chinese population of healthy subjects and PDpatients. METHODS: For this purpose, cohorts of 39 Chinese and 41 German PDpatients as well as 70 Chinese and 100 German healthy subjects have been examined both with the original and the adapted version of the Sniffin' Sticks test, the latter being designed according to the regional culture. RESULTS: The adapted Chinese version of the Sniffin' Sticks 12 identification test proved to discriminate Chinese PDpatients from controls with a high specificity but relatively low sensitivity. Yet not all odor exchanges would have been necessary as the original odors including liquorice and coffee showed an equally high identification rate in the Chinese and German cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that the newly adapted test could be used as a screening test for PD related olfactory dysfunction in a Chinese population. However further investigation will be necessary to optimize the selection of odors for the Chinese version of the test.
Authors: Ronald B Postuma; Daniela Berg; Charles H Adler; Bastiaan R Bloem; Piu Chan; Günther Deuschl; Thomas Gasser; Christopher G Goetz; Glenda Halliday; Lawrence Joseph; Anthony E Lang; Inga Liepelt-Scarfone; Irene Litvan; Kenneth Marek; Wolfgang Oertel; C Warren Olanow; Werner Poewe; Matthew Stern Journal: Lancet Neurol Date: 2016-04-11 Impact factor: 44.182
Authors: Philipp Mahlknecht; Alex Iranzo; Birgit Högl; Birgit Frauscher; Christoph Müller; Joan Santamaría; Eduardo Tolosa; Monica Serradell; Thomas Mitterling; Viola Gschliesser; Georg Goebel; Florian Brugger; Christoph Scherfler; Werner Poewe; Klaus Seppi Journal: Neurology Date: 2015-01-21 Impact factor: 9.910
Authors: João Carlos Ribeiro; João Simões; Filipe Silva; Eduardo D Silva; Cornelia Hummel; Thomas Hummel; António Paiva Journal: PLoS One Date: 2016-02-10 Impact factor: 3.240