Abstracts - Association for Chemoreception Sciences

Poster Presentations
#P1 POSTER SESSION I:
MULTIMODAL RECEPTION; CHEMOSENSATION
AND DISEASE; OLFACTION PERIPHERY
Meteorological Vaticination through Phantosmia:
A Case Study
Gurprit Bains, Salvatore Aiello, Alan Hirsch
Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation Chicago, IL, USA
Introduction: Linkage of weather to chemosensory
hallucinations has heretofore not been reported.
Methods: Case Study: A 64 yo M presents with five years
of intermittent noxious skunk-onion excrement phantosmia,
lasting for hours. If severe, he tastes the same odor. It is
exacerbated by coughing and nasal congestion, and alleviated
with sleep, nasal irrigation, alprazolam, occluding nostrils,
assuming Moffitt’s position, snorting salt water, blowing nose,
and holding breath. When eating or sniffing, the actual flavors
replace the phantosmia. Since onset, he noted the intensity and
frequency of the phantosmia forecasted the weather. Two hours
before a storm, the phantosmia intensifies from a level 0 to a
7-10, which persists through the entire thunderstorm. Twenty
years prior, he noted the ability to forecast the weather, based on
pain in a torn meniscus, which vanished after surgical repair.
Results: Olfactory testing revealed hyposmia: QSIT 1; ETOH
Sniff Test 3cm; BSIT 8; PST 2; Odor Memory Test: 2-10 sec.,
2-30 sec., 0-60 sec.; UPSIT – 27 R, 8 L, Sniffin’ Sticks –
Threshold: L