Department of Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Am J Rhinol Allergy. 2013 May-Jun;27 Suppl 1:S45-7. doi: 10.2500/ajra.2013.27.3898.
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 pathophysiological processes, such as head trauma, aging, autoimmunity, and toxic exposures, can contribute to smell impairment, with distinct implications concerning prognosis and possible treatment. Otolaryngologists are most likely to see this symptom in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, and this now appears to be caused more by the mucosal inflammation than by physical airway obstruction.
嗅觉减退可显著降低生活质量，包括味觉障碍和丧失进食乐趣，从而导致体重变化，以及难以避免如变质食物或天然气泄漏等健康风险。最近的流行病学报告表明，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，它们会在某些人群中显示出相当高的嗅觉减退和嗅觉丧失患病率，尤其是老年人。多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明显的影响。耳鼻喉科医生最有可能在慢性鼻-鼻窦炎患者中看到这种症状，而现在看来，这种症状更多是由黏膜炎症引起的，而不是气道物理阻塞引起的。
