Ponsen Mirthe M, Stoffers Diederick, Twisk Jos W R, Wolters Erik Ch, Berendse Henk W
Department of Neurology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Mov Disord. 2009 May 15;24(7):1060-5. doi: 10.1002/mds.22534.
Olfactory deficits and executive dysfunction are early and common symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). Previous studies have shown that hyposmia can be a first sign of PD. The aim of the present study was to determine which of three olfactory tests and two selected tests of executive function would be the best predictor of future PD over a 5 year period. In a cohort of 361 nonparkinsonian, nondemented first-degree relatives of PD patients, in whom alternative causes of olfactory dysfunction were excluded, we measured baseline performance on three olfactory and two executive function tasks. Five years from baseline, clinical neurological evaluation and/or a screening questionnaire, sensitive to the presence of Parkinsonism, were used to detect individuals developing clinical PD. Our results show that in first degree relatives of PD patients worse performance on each of three olfactory processing tasks was associated with an increased risk of developing PD within 5 years, whereas performance on selected tests of executive dysfunction was not associated with an increased risk of developing PD. Interestingly, impaired odor discrimination was the best predictor for future PD.
嗅觉减退和执行功能障碍是帕金森病（PD）早期常见的症状。先前的研究表明，嗅觉减退可能是PD的首个迹象。本研究的目的是确定三种嗅觉测试和两种选定的执行功能测试中，哪一种能在5年时间内最好地预测未来的PD。在一组361名非帕金森病、无痴呆的PD患者一级亲属中，排除了嗅觉功能障碍的其他原因后，我们测量了他们在三项嗅觉和两项执行功能任务上的基线表现。从基线开始5年后，通过临床神经学评估和/或一份对帕金森综合征存在情况敏感的筛查问卷，来检测出现临床PD的个体。我们的结果表明，在PD患者的一级亲属中，三项嗅觉处理任务中任何一项表现较差都与5年内发生PD的风险增加有关，而选定的执行功能障碍测试的表现与发生PD的风险增加无关。有趣的是，气味辨别受损是未来PD的最佳预测指标。
