Objective: We aimed to evaluate gustatory, olfactory and cognitive functions in Essential Tremor patients.

Background: Essential tremor (ET) is a pathologically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder with both motor and increasingly recognized non-motor features. In the current literature deficits in executive function, attention, concentration, memory and impaired color vision, disturbances of olfaction and hearing impairments are reported. Very few reports are existing about gustatory functions of ET patients which is so much correlated with olfaction and cognition.

Methods: Thirty-six patients with ET and 30 healthy volunteers were included to study. “Taste Strip” test was used to evaluate gustatory functions. Olfactory functions were studied with the “Sniffin’ sticks” test and olfactory bulb volumes (OBV) were measured with MRI. Cognitive functions were assessed by “Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE)” and executive functions were evaluated with “Stroop” test. The t-test was used for analyzing continuous variables and the chi-square test for the categorical datas.

Results: ET patients didn’t show significant difference with olfactory (p>0.36), gustatory, OBV measurements and cognitive scores (p>0.85) than the healthy controls.

Conclusions: Gustatory functions were found normal in ET patients compared to healthy controls as olfactory functions. This knowledge might be beneficial to distinguish ET patients from Parkinson’s disease (PD) which are the two most common tremor disorders encountered in a movement disorders clinic.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/gustatory-function-of-patients-with-essential-tremor-and-its-correlation-with-olfactory-and-cognitive-functions/