Mastinu Mariano, Pieniak Michał, Wolf Anne, Green Tomer, Hähner Antje, Niv Masha Y, Hummel Thomas
Smell and Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Technical University of Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany.
Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, 50-529 Wrocław, Poland.
Life (Basel). 2022 Dec 25;13(1):59. doi: 10.3390/life13010059.
Taste dysfunctions may occur, for example, after viral infection, surgery, medications, or with age. In clinical practice, it is important to assess patients' taste function with rapidity and reliability. This study aimed to develop a test that assesses human gustatory sensitivity together with somatosensory functions of astringency and spiciness. A total of 154 healthy subjects and 51 patients with chemosensory dysfunction rated their gustatory sensitivity. They underwent a whole-mouth identification test of 12 filter-paper strips impregnated with low and high concentrations of sweet, sour, salty, bitter (sucrose, citric acid, NaCl, quinine), astringency (tannin), and spiciness (capsaicin). The percentage of correct identifications for high-concentrated sweet and sour, and for low-concentrated salty, bitter and spicy was lower in patients as compared with healthy participants. Interestingly, a lower identification in patients for both astringent concentrations was found. Based on the results, we proposed the Seven-iTT to assess chemo/somatosensory function, with a cut-off of 6 out of 7. The test score discriminated patients from healthy controls and showed gender differences among healthy controls. This quantitative test seems to be suitable for routine clinical assessment of gustatory and trigeminal function. It also provides new evidence on the mutual interaction between the two sensory systems.
味觉功能障碍可能会出现，例如，在病毒感染、手术后、用药后或随着年龄增长。在临床实践中，快速且可靠地评估患者的味觉功能很重要。本研究旨在开发一种能同时评估人类味觉敏感性以及涩味和辣味体感功能的测试。共有154名健康受试者和51名化学感觉功能障碍患者对他们的味觉敏感性进行了评分。他们接受了一项全口识别测试，该测试使用12条浸渍有低浓度和高浓度甜味、酸味、咸味、苦味（蔗糖、柠檬酸、氯化钠、奎宁）、涩味（单宁）和辣味（辣椒素）的滤纸。与健康参与者相比，患者对高浓度甜味和酸味以及低浓度咸味、苦味和辣味的正确识别百分比更低。有趣的是，发现患者对两种涩味浓度的识别率都较低。基于这些结果，我们提出了七项味觉测试（Seven-iTT）来评估化学/体感功能，临界值为7分中的6分。测试分数能够区分患者和健康对照，并且在健康对照中显示出性别差异。这种定量测试似乎适用于味觉和三叉神经功能的常规临床评估。它还为这两种感觉系统之间的相互作用提供了新的证据。
