Objective: Investigate if olfactory impairment in PD patients  are related with other non motor symptoms

Background: Non motor symptoms (NMS) can precede Parkinson’s Disease (PD) motor phenomenology, like impaired olfaction. Recently olfactory assessment  has been included as one of the supportive tests of the Movement Disorders Society (MDS) clinical diagnostic criteria for PD; Despite the fact of its certainty in PD diagnosis an olfactory screening is not included in the MDS-UPDRS I non motor aspects of daily living due that olfaction can not be routinely evaluated by a questionnaire. Different methods for assessing olfaction have been developed. In Honduras, as well as other regions of Central America, olfactory testing has not been assessed neither nonmotor symptoms; the relationship between each NMS is inconclusive

Methods: Olfaction was evaluated in 30 consecutive unselected nondemented patients, fulfilling UKPDSBB criteria for PD using Sniffin Sticks Test (SST) in San Felipe Hospital Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Olfaction was classified as normosmics or impaired olfaction depending on age and sex cutoffs of SST. Non motor symptoms were evaluated using MDS-UPDRS-I. Relationships between olfactory groups and non motor symptoms was evaluated by Fishers exact test and Bivariate correlation between SST and UPDRS-III was performed.

Results: 53.3% were male. Mean age was 67±11 years, and mean MDS-UPDRS-III ON score was 30.1±15.13. The mean onset of disease was 61±13.3 years. The gap between symptoms onset and initiation of dopaminergic replacement therapy was 5.27±5.26 years and we found a mean LEDD of 2375±1541, in addition 36.6% had less than equal to primary schooling. Overall frequency of impaired olfaction in PD patients was 70%. No correlation was found between olfaction and schooling (p>0.1). The most frequent NMS screened was cognitive impairment, followed by fatigue.

Relationship was found between impaired olfaction and cognitive impairment (p <0.05) but not between other non motor symptoms. No correlation was found between olfactory impairment and UPDRS III score

Conclusions: Olfactory assessment shows to be reliable and is not affected by schooling, relationship between impaired olfaction and cognition was found. Ongoing of this study continues using specific scales for each non motor symptom.

References: Rossi, M., Perez-Lloret, S., Millar Vernetti, P., Drucaroff, L., Costanzo, E., Ballesteros, D., Bril, A., Cerquetti, D., Guinjoan, S. and Merello, M. (2015), Olfactory Dysfunction Evaluation Is Not Affected by Comorbid Depression in Parkinson’s Disease. Mov Disord., 30: 1275–1279. doi:10.1002/mds.26276

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