Assessment of chemosensory disorders in allergic rhinitis

Year 2017, Volume: 7 Issue: 2, 82 - 86, 30.09.2017

Mehmet Özgür Avinçsal Aytuğ Altundağ Denizhan Dizdar Mehmet Emre Dinç Seçkin Ulusoy Mehmet Külekçi

Abstract

Objective:
Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a globally common inflammatory disease that
has a considerable effect on an individual's quality of life. It is
estimated that AR affects 10% to 25% of the general population. Both
gustatory and olfactory disorders affect the social activities and job
performance resulting in impaired quality of life in patients suffering
from AR. We think that these problems have not been sufficiently
investigated in the past. We, therefore, decided to evaluate the
smell-taste disorders in patients suffering from AR. Our objective is to
evaluate the chemosensory perception in patients suffering from
allergic AR.




Methods:
Fifty-four patients with AR and 34 healthy controls were enrolled for
the current study. "Sniffin' sticks" test and taste strips were used for
chemosensory assessment.




Results:
According to the "Sniffin' sticks" test results, patients with AR had
significantly lower scores for odor threshold and identification
subtasks, whereas there was no difference between the two groups
regarding odor discrimination scores (p<0.001, p<0.001, and p=0.3,
respectively). After evaluating the taste strip test results, we found
that taste scores were significantly low in patients with AR when
compared to controls for sweet, salty, bitter and sour tastes.




Conclusion: This
study showed clinically important deficiency of chemosensory
sensitivity in AR patients. Since chemosensory deprivation in AR
patients has tended to be overlooked in the past, these outcomes suggest
that chemosensory disorders should be part of the standard evaluation
of patients with AR.

Keywords

Allergic rhinitis, chemosensory disorders, taste and smell disorders, Alerjik rinit, tat ve koku bozuklukları, kemosensör bozukluklar

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