Olfactory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.

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Olfactory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.

August 2007

Dept. of Neurology, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.

Olfactory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been described

for more than thirty years and known as one of the commonest non-motor

symptoms in PD. Recently, it attracts widespread attention as one of

early symptoms preceding motor impairments and a potential good marker

for the preclinical diagnosis of PD. However, some previous reports

demonstrated that olfactory function was also impaired in other

dementing disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and it was not specific

for PD. But recent pathological re-evaluation suggests that olfactory

dysfunction is strongly associated with Lewy body pathology rather than

other pathological hallmarks including neurofibrillary tangles. Thus

olfactory tests may improve diagnostic accuracy of PD. Increasing

evidence suggests that olfactory dysfunction is one of the most

important non-motor symptoms in PD.

Source:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17713830?dopt=Abstract