Open AccessOlfactory bulb volume and olfactory function in patients with multiple sclerosis
Author(s) -
Oender Goektas,
Felix Schmidt,
Georg Böhner,
Katharina Erb,
Lutz Lüdemann,
Bettina Dahlslett,
Lutz Harms,
Franca Fleiner
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
rhinology (amsterdam. online)/rhinology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.275
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1996-8604
pISSN - 0300-0729
DOI - 10.4193/rhino10.136
Subject(s) - olfactory bulb , medicine , multiple sclerosis , olfactory system , magnetic resonance imaging , olfaction , hyposmia , pathology , neuroscience , radiology , central nervous system , disease , biology , immunology , covid-19 , psychiatry , infectious disease (medical specialty)
BACKGROUND: Some studies reported olfactory dysfunction in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). There is no agreement about the most suitable testing method for measuring olfactory function (OF) in MS patients. Recent studies showed that olfactory bulb volume changes with the degree of olfactory dysfunction. We assessed olfactory bulb volume of MS patients with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and related it to the OF. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Volumetric measurements of the right and left olfactory bulb (OB) were performed by manual segmentation within 36 MS patients. Psychophysical testing of the orthonasal OF was performed using threshold-discrimination-identification (TDI) score in MS patients. RESULTS: Of all MS patients, 44.4% displayed olfactory dysfunction. The TDI score of all 36 MS patients, especially the score of the Identification subtest correlated strongly with neurological scores typical of MS. In patients with a decreased OB volume, there was a positive correlation between volumetry of the OB and OF. CONCLUSION: OB volumes may provide valuable information about MS patients with olfactory dysfunction. The TDI test and Identification subtest were very sensitive in detecting olfactory dysfunction in MS patients.