Department of Pediatrics, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Allergy Asthma Proc. 2010 May-Jun;31(3):185-9. doi: 10.2500/aap.2010.31.3357.
There has been some renewed interest in recent years in disorders of olfaction. Decreased sense of smell can lead to significant impairment of quality of life, including taste disturbance and loss of pleasure from eating with resulting changes in weight and difficulty in avoiding health risks such as spoiled food or leaking natural gas. Recent epidemiological reports have shown that despite fairly low self-reported prevalence of these disorders in large population studies, when validated smell identification or threshold tests are used, they reveal quite a high prevalence of hyposmia and anosmia in certain groups, especially the elderly. Several different pathophysiologic processes, such as head trauma, aging, autoimmunity, and toxic exposures, can contribute to smell impairment, with distinct implications concerning prognosis and possible treatment. As allergists, we are most likely to see this symptom in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, and this now appears to be due more to the mucosal inflammation than to physical airway obstruction.
近年来，人们对嗅觉障碍的兴趣有所恢复。嗅觉减退可导致生活质量显著下降，包括味觉障碍和饮食乐趣丧失，进而导致体重变化和难以避免健康风险，如变质食物或天然气泄漏。最近的流行病学报告显示，尽管在大型人群研究中，这些障碍的自我报告患病率相当低，但当使用经过验证的嗅觉识别或阈值测试时，它们会发现某些人群，尤其是老年人中存在相当高的嗅觉减退和嗅觉丧失患病率。几种不同的病理生理过程，如头部创伤、衰老、自身免疫和有毒物质暴露，都可能导致嗅觉障碍，这对预后和可能的治疗有不同的影响。作为过敏症专家，我们最有可能在慢性鼻-鼻窦炎患者中看到这种症状，而现在看来这更多是由于黏膜炎症而不是气道物理阻塞所致。
