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#P150
POSTER SESSION IV:
CHEMICAL SIGNALING & BEHAVIOR;
PSYCHOPHYSICS; CHEMOSENSATION & DISEASE;
OLFACTION PERIPHERY; TASTE PERIPHERY
Taste disorders in patients of a specialized Smell & Taste Clinic
Therese Fark, Bettina Hauswald, Cornelia Hummel,
Thomas Hummel
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Dresden
Medical School Dresden, Germany
Aim of this retrospective study was to determine the frequency of
taste disorders, their courses and symptoms in patients of the Smell
and Taste Clinic in Dresden. Material and Methods: All patients
underwent a through physical ENT examination including detailed
assessment of smell and taste function. Results: A total of 451 out
of 4679 patients (presenting them for the first time) exhibited taste
disorders (9.6 %). The three most frequently causes were idiopathic
(31%), postoperative (16%) and posttraumatic (15%). Patients with
idiopathic and postoperative taste disorders complained mainly
about hypogeusia and pargeusia; in comparison patients with
posttraumatic taste disorders exhibited a relatively higher degree of
partial, local or complete ageusia. When exploring all patients with
regard to specific hypogeusia/ageusia this was most common for
sweet (n=7), followed by sour (n=5) and salty/bitter (n=3/2).
Almost the reverse pattern was seen for parageusias which were
most frequent for salty/bitter (n=12/9), and much less common for
sweet and sour (n=2/3); metallic parageusias were mentioned by 5
patients. Conclusions: Taste disorders seem to be a little bit more
frequent than previously thought; compared to olfactory disorders,
however, less is known about the course of the disease.
#P151
POSTER SESSION IV:
CHEMICAL SIGNALING & BEHAVIOR;
PSYCHOPHYSICS; CHEMOSENSATION & DISEASE;
OLFACTION PERIPHERY; TASTE PERIPHERY
Cerebral processing of gustatory stimuli in patients with
dysgeusia, with and without burning sensations
Gina B. Schlumberger
1
, Cornelia Hummel
1
, Han-Seok Seo
1
,
Miriam Grushka
2
, Emilia Iannilli
1
, Johannes Gerber
3
,
Thomas Hummel
1
1
Smell&Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology
Dresden, Germany,
2
Department of Surgery, Wiliam Osler
Health Center Etobicoke Campus Toronto, ON, Canada,
3
Department of Neuroradiology, Technical University of
Dresden Dresden, Germany
Aim of the investigation was to determine differences in the
central-nervous processing of gustatory stimuli between patients
with dysgeusia, patients with dysgeusia plus burning sensations,
and healthy controls. Twelve subjects with normal gustatory
function an 20 patients suffering from dysgeusia as well as 13
patients with burning mouth syndrome(BMS) participated. A
detailed history was taken, followed by an ENT examination and
psychophysical testing. Patients also participated in a functional
magnetic resonance imaging( fMRI) session in a 1.5 T scanner.
Four different liquid stimuli were presented at suprathreshold
concentrations. The fMRI analyses were performed by means of
SPM8. Across all participants severel clusters of activation were
mainly found in orbitofrontal or insular regions. As already shown
previously, in general patients exhibited higher activation compared
to the control group. Results of the SPM8 analysis showed no
major difference between the patients with qualitative and
quantitative taste disturbance. These results indicate that, in terms
of central nervous processing of pain, BMS and dysgeusia exhibit
more similarities than previously thought.
#P152
POSTER SESSION IV:
CHEMICAL SIGNALING & BEHAVIOR;
PSYCHOPHYSICS; CHEMOSENSATION & DISEASE;
OLFACTION PERIPHERY; TASTE PERIPHERY
Guidelines for Quantifying Fungiform Papillae Densities
in a Community-Based Laboratory
Meghan M Sloan, Tiffany M Derr, Nicole L Garneau,
Bridget Coughlin
Denver Museum of Nature & Science Denver, CO, USA
Utilizing more than 50 volunteer citizen-scientists, we are
conducting research on how PROP taster status correlates with
genetic ancestry and body composition. After analyzing 2,000
samples, we were dismayed to find no correlations, not even the
well-supported correlation between fungiform papillae density and
taster status. Despite seemingly clear guidelines of what is to be
considered a fungiform papilla (mushroom shaped, elevated
structures that stain lighter in color than the surrounding papillae),
in our community-based laboratory, we realized we needed stricter
guidelines so that more than 50 different people can count the same
photograph of a blue-stained tongue consistently. Our goal is to
quantify the density of papillae in any given photograph within
10% of each other. We established a hierarchy of guidelines in
order to count more consistently. Additionally, we included a cut-
off size of 0.5mm for fungiform papillae; anything smaller is
considered to be a filiform papillae. Here we present the impact of
this classification system on our outcomes and our consistency.
Acknowledgements: R25 RR025066-02 NIH NCRR SEPA
#P153
POSTER SESSION IV:
CHEMICAL SIGNALING & BEHAVIOR;
PSYCHOPHYSICS; CHEMOSENSATION & DISEASE;
OLFACTION PERIPHERY; TASTE PERIPHERY
Differences in adaptation rate to sucrose and saccharin
in the mouth reflect differences in heat sensitivity
Barry G. Green
1,2
, Danielle J. Nachtigal
1
1
The John B. Pierce Laboratory New Haven, CT, USA,
2
Yale University School of Medicine New Haven, CT, USA
Prior studies have shown that among sweeteners, sucrose and other
carbohydrates adapt less rapidly than do some artificial sweeteners,
such as saccharin. We recently observed that adaptation to sucrose
sweetness is highly temperature-dependent: i.e., it is more rapid
and complete when the tongue tip is dipped into a room-
temperature solution (ca. 22°C) compared to a 37°C solution.
This finding implies the slower rates of sweetness adaptation for
sucrose in the mouth are due in part to the warmer temperature of
the mouth, which in turn implies that the more rapid adaptation of
saccharin sweetness in the mouth reflects a lesser sensitivity to
heat. This hypothesis was tested in 2 experiments that measured
sweet taste adaptation at different temperatures and in different
conditions: In exp. 1, 20 Ss used the gLMS to rate the perceived
sweetness of 22° or 37°C solutions of 0.42M sucrose or 0.0032mM
saccharin that were sampled by either dipping the tongue into the
solution (“Dip”) or sipping the solution into the mouth (“Sip”).
Adaptation was measured over 0, 3, 7, or 15 sec. Saccharin
sweetness adapted significantly more rapidly than did sucrose
78 | AChemS Abstracts 2012
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