Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Philipps University, Deutschhausstrasse 3, 35037 Marburg, Germany.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2010 Jul;267(7):1081-7. doi: 10.1007/s00405-009-1181-7. Epub 2009 Dec 30.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common, functional disorder diagnosed by gastroenterologists. It is still unclear whether IBS has a central etiology, e.g., hyperreactivity of the brain, or a peripheral etiology, e.g., stimulation of olfactory/gustatory receptors on enterochromaffin cells, followed by serotonin release and changed gut motility. Testing the odor identification (ID), odor discrimination (DIS) and odor threshold (THR) as well as the total taste and the taste qualities "sweet", "sour", "salty" and "bitter" should be of help for determining the etiology. To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the olfactory/gustatory function in IBS patients. The olfactory/gustatory function of 43 patients (32 women, 11 men) suffering from IBS as defined by the ROME III criteria was investigated by means of validated tests (Sniffin' Sticks and taste strips). Compared to normative data, scores of THR were decreased and scores of ID and DIS were increased in IBS patients. Additionally, when compared to normative data, there was no difference in the taste function of IBS patients. Assuming that THR reflects more the peripheral olfactory function, whereas ID and DIS are influenced by central activity, and that taste did not differ in IBS patients compared to normative data, this supports the idea of a central etiology of IBS.
肠易激综合征（IBS）是由肠胃病学家诊断的最常见的功能性疾病。目前尚不清楚 IBS 是否具有中枢病因，例如大脑的高反应性，或者外周病因，例如肠嗜铬细胞上嗅觉/味觉受体的刺激，随后释放血清素并改变肠道蠕动。测试嗅觉识别（ID）、嗅觉辨别（DIS）和嗅觉阈值（THR）以及总味觉和味觉品质“甜”、“酸”、“咸”和“苦”应该有助于确定病因。据我们所知，这是第一项研究肠易激综合征患者嗅觉/味觉功能的研究。通过使用经过验证的测试（Sniffin' Sticks 和味觉条），对 43 名（32 名女性，11 名男性）符合 ROME III 标准的 IBS 患者的嗅觉/味觉功能进行了研究。与参考值相比，IBS 患者的 THR 评分降低，ID 和 DIS 评分升高。此外，与参考值相比，IBS 患者的味觉功能没有差异。假设 THR 更多地反映了外周嗅觉功能，而 ID 和 DIS 受中枢活动的影响，并且与参考值相比，IBS 患者的味觉没有差异，这支持了 IBS 的中枢病因学说。
