Abstracts - Association for Chemoreception Sciences

of 7/10, and causing eyes to water for several hours. His
symptoms improve with saline irrigation, snorting salt water,
xanax, flonase, distractions, holding breath or nose, clogged nose,
putting head down, sleep, blowing nose, laughing, eating,
humming, or talking. Nasal congestion, coughing, or breathing in
and out worsen it. In an attempt to reduce the phantosmia, the
patient was given odorized pens impregnated with (banana, garlic,
cloves or turpentine) to sniff on onset of phantosmia. Banana and
garlic had no effect, however, cloves and turpentine induced total
replacement and inhibition of the phantosmia. Discussion: The
potential mechanism of odor inhibition of phantosmia is through
peripheral olfactory stimulation acting as a counterstimuli,
causing peripheral inhibition of the phantosmia
#P332 POSTER SESSION VII:
OLFACTORY PSYCHOPHYSICS &
CLINICAL STUDIES; CENTRAL OLFACTION
Filial Catamenial Phantosmia
Jhanvi Menon, Alan R. Hirsch, Jhoette Dumlao
The Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation
Chicago, IL, USA
Objective: To report an unusual case of filial catamenial
phantosmia. Background: Phantosmia describes the phenomenon
of odor perception when no odorant stimulus is present.
Design/methods: Two sisters, aged 39 and 41 presented with
similar recurrent catamenial smoky phantosmias in the absence of
olfactory deficits. Beginning three days prior to and resolving a
week after menses, all odors were perceived as a mixture of their
original essence and the phantom odor. Both their medical
histories were positive for migraine headaches and were negative
for head trauma, upper respiratory tract illness and rhinitis.
Results: General physical, psychiatric, neurological and head and
neck examinations, nasal endoscopy, MRI and CT of the brain
and sinuses were negative and chemosensory testing including
phenylethyl alcohol(PEA) threshold and University of
Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test were normal in the
proband. The proband’s symptoms resolved on initiation of
L-methylfolate, Methylcobalamin and N-acetylcysteine.
The sister declined treatment. Conclusions: Relative olfactory
hypersensitivity resulting from estrogenic changes in mucosal
consistency may have induced patient awareness of subthreshold
odors, perceived as a phantosmia. Alternatively, relative hyposmia
caused by low estrogen or a progesterone excess could explain the
temporal sequence of both presentations. Estrogenic modulation
of neuronal function, a shared olfactory tropic virus infection, a
mass psychogenic illness, a cyclic variant of olfactory reference
syndrome or an amigrainous variant of catamenial migraine could
explain both the cyclical and the familial pattern of symptom
production. Relevance: Exploration in these realms may prove
beneficial in elucidating a management approach for phantosmias.
Funding Sources: none
#P333 POSTER SESSION VII:
OLFACTORY PSYCHOPHYSICS &
CLINICAL STUDIES; CENTRAL OLFACTION
Developmental fine-tuning of olfactory discriminability
Xiaomeng Zhang, Kepu Chen, Wen Zhou
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing,
China
Olfaction, generally considered well functioning at birth, is
unique among human senses in its neural genesis and myelination
processes. There have been few empirical studies on the
developmental trajectory of human olfactory perception. Here we
assessed olfactory discriminability in children aged 3-6 yrs with
16 pairs of single-compound odorants which differ in various
degrees on structure, functional group, and/or smell. We observed
a significant positive correlation between age and overall
discriminability. Moreover, age interacts with pairs of odorants —
whereas some odorant pairs were discriminated equally well by
children of all ages, some were better discriminated in older
children. Our findings provide insights into the fine-tuning
process of human olfactory system. Acknowledgements:
Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences Grant No. 09CX192019 & KSCX2-YW-R-250
#P334 POSTER SESSION VII:
OLFACTORY PSYCHOPHYSICS &
CLINICAL STUDIES; CENTRAL OLFACTION
Quantifying Olfactory Function in the Aging U.S. Population:
A Home Test
David W. Kern 1 , L. Philip Schumm 2 , Martha K. McClintock 1
1
Department of Comparative Human Development and Institute
for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA,
2
Department of Health Studies, University of Chicago Chicago,
IL, USA
The aging olfactory system may contribute significantly to
physical and mental health in older adults, as well as their quality
of life. To characterize olfactory aging in the diverse population of
the United States, we selected a representative sample of 3,005
older adults (the National Social Life and Aging Project
(NSHAP)), large enough to accurately determine prevalence of
olfactory dysfunction and its association with key aspects of
medical conditions, mental health, sexuality, cognition, social
networks, geography, and demography (e.g. socioeconomic status,
ethnicity and gender). The Olfactory Function Field Exam
(OFFE) is designed to be conducted in respondents’ homes
throughout the United States and requires a short 6-8 minute
protocol to assess sensitivity to physical and social odors as well
as odor identification. To this end we conducted two validation
studies: 1. Validation of the olfactory sensitivity component of the
OFFE: A forced choice sensitivity test for a physical odorant (nbutanol)
and a social odorant (androstadienone) was administered
to 30 older adults along with well-validated staircase threshold
tests (Hummel, et al., 1997). We will report the test characteristics
and validity of the OFFE’s sensitivity component, along with
frequency of dysfunction and basic demographic characteristics.
2. To determine feasibility of administration by field interviewers,
we completed a pretest of both components of the OFFE (odor
sensitivity and identification) embedded in the full NSHAP
interview of people in their homes throughout the U.S. (n = 120).
We found a 100% success rate, and will report on further
refinements of the OFFE, along with frequency of dysfunction
P O S T E R S
Abstracts are printed as submitted by the author(s)
Abstracts | 137