Journal
MOVEMENT DISORDERS
Volume 19, Issue 10, Pages 1196-1202Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/mds.20141
Keywords
olfaction; smell; predictor; transcranial sonography; neurodegeneration
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Olfactory loss is among the early signs of Parkinson's disease (PD). We investigated whether idiopathic olfactory dysfunction might relate to signs of nigral degeneration. Olfactory tests were combined with transcranial sonography of the substantia nigra and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging. Thirty patients diagnosed with idiopathic olfactory loss participated. Eleven of these patients exhibited an increased echogenicity of the SN in the transcranial sonography. In 10 of these 11 patients, SPECT scans with I-123-FP-CIT were performed. Median uptake ratios in the basal ganglia were pathological in 5 patients, 2 patients exhibited borderline findings, and 3 patients had normal results. Considering patients with idiopathic olfactory dysfunction, noninvasive transcranial sonography seems to be helpful in identifying patients potentially at risk to develop PD. Longitudinal follow-up studies are necessary to estimate the ratio of patients with dopaminergic cell loss in the basal ganglia who will develop PD in the future. (C) 2004 Movement Disorder Society.
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