Neurológia pre prax 2/2015

Smell and taste disorders occur in many neurological diseases

Smell and taste disorders occur in many neurological diseases. The authors present a short overview of chemosensory perception testing. Chemosensory perception encompasses not only smell and taste, but all trigeminal nerve mediated perception from nasal and oral mucosa. Chemosensory perception disorders occur only rarely in some mononeuropathies, but they are substantially more frequent in polyneuropathies. Disorders of chemosensory perception are very often documented in metabolic (diabetes mellitus) or toxic (organic solvents, heavy metals, some medicaments) polyneuropathies. Taste disordes are relatively often found in autoimmune mediated polyneuropathies.

Keywords: chemosensory perception, smell and taste testing, mononeuropathies, polyneuropathies, acute polyradiculoneuritis.