[Post-COVID patients with persistent chemosensory symptoms are rare in the general population].

Objective: The prevalence of long-/post-COVID-associated chemosensory symptoms is reported in the literature to be significantly higher than clinical reality reflects.

Methods: 1. N= 4062 adults acutely infected with SARS-CoV-2 and their symptoms transmitted by the Jena health office to the Robert Koch Institute between March 2020 and September 2021 were evaluated.

Position paper on olfactory dysfunction: 2023.

Background: Since publication of the original Position Paper on Olfactory Dysfunction in 2017 (PPOD-17), the personal and societal burden of olfactory disorders has come sharply into focus through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinicians, scientists and the public are now more aware of the importance of olfaction, and the impact of its dysfunction on quality of life, nutrition, social relationships and mental health. Accordingly, new basic, translational and clinical research has resulted in significant progress since the PPOD-17.

[Subjective and objectified smell and taste disorders from an ENT post-Covid-19 consultation].

Introduction: Olfactory disorders are among the four most common post-COVID-19 complaints. The aim of our prospective study from a university ENT post-COVID consultation (PCS) was to substantiate the symptoms with psychophysical test results.

Methods: After an ENT examination, 60 post-COVID-19 patients (41 women) were asked in writing about their medical history.

[Reported and measured olfactory and gustatory findings in a long-COVID cohort].

Introduction: Disorders of the sense of smell and taste are often complained as a long-COVID symptom. In a special long-COVID consultation (ENT-LCS), we wanted to figure out how large the proportion of pathological olfactory or gustatory diagnoses actually is in this cohort.

Methods: 48 adult patients who visited the ENT-LCS because of their own suffering were asked about their history, rated their ability to smell (SER) and taste (SES) with school grades and completed the extended Sniffin' Sticks test and the 3-drop test as a taste test.

[Smell of fish slightly increases the heart rate and only one parameter of variability in adults].

Introduction: Cardiac olfactory stimulus reactions could expand the range of objectifying test methods for testing olfactory function. In a pilot study, it was investigated whether and how pleasant and unpleasant odors change the heart rate (HR) and its variability.

Methodology: 32 healthy people with normal smell function inhaled nasally for seven minutes the smell of four Sniffin' Sticks (banana, fish, garlic and rose) alternating with blanks.

High prevalence of long-term olfactory dysfunction confirmed by olfactory testing after a community COVID-19 outbreak.

Purpose: The prevalence of long-term olfactory and gustatory dysfunction in participants suffering from sudden chemosensory loss due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is unknown. Furthermore, evaluations of the reliability of participants' self-reporting of olfactory function (SOF) and gustatory function (SGF) using extended objective psychophysical testing are missing.

Methods: In this population-based cohort study in a PCR-tested community in Thuringia, Germany, olfactory function was extensively examined 4 months after a COVID-19 outbreak using the "Sniffin Sticks" test battery to determine the TDI score, i.

[Breath changes induced by short chemosensory stimuli cannot be intentionally suppressed].

Introduction: Breathing changes induced by repeated short olfactory stimuli are used as an objective indicator of the integrity of the olfactory system. Until now, it has not been investigated whether chemosensorically induced changes in inspiratory and expiratory time parameters can be suppressed intentionally. The same applies to breathing changes due to weak CO stimuli.

[Detection rates of chemosensory evoked Potenzials with healthy and anosmic subjects].

Background: The detection rate of olfactory chemosensory event-related EEG Potentials (oCSERP) and trigeminal chemosensory event-related EEG Potentials (tCSERP) is also dependent on the stimulants and the evaluator of the averaged EEG curves.

Methods: In 45 subjects with age-appropriate normal olfactory capacity (NP) and 20 anosmics (AN), oCSERP (stimulation by hydrogen sulphide, HS 6 ppm and phenylethyl alcohol, PEA 30 % v/v,) and tCSERP (irritation with CO 20-60 % v/v, intensity standardized) were derived by default. Two investigators categorized the averaged EEG curves in: CSERP recognizable, no CSERP recognizable and artefact.

[Hydrogen sulphide stimuli shorten exhalation during sleep as well as in wakefulness].

Background: In the attentive waking state, pleasant odours often prolong inhalation while unpleasant odours often shorten the exhalation. It should be checked whether this induced breathing pattern is maintained even during sleep.

Methodology: 23 healthy normosmic adults were examined by polysomnography for one night and randomized pulsed either with HS, phenylethyl alcohol (PEA) or CO via a flow olfactometer.

[The active butanol detection threshold remains the same during exercise].

Background: The active butanol detection thresholds (B-DT), determined using the sniffin' sticks, show a high intra- and inter-individual test-retest reliability, although the internal stimulus concentration may vary considerably depending on the dilution of the external stimulus concentration with odorless ambient air during active sniffing. There are various hypotheses for this surprising result. In this study, it should be tested whether a larger respiratory effort (vigor) under physical stress changes the active B-DT.

Electrophysiologic assessment of olfactory and gustatory function.

This chapter reviews approaches for assessing human and gustatory function using electrophysiologic methods. Its focus is on changes in electrical signals, including summated generator potentials that occur after nasal or oral stimulation. In the first part of the review, we describe tools available to the clinician for assessing olfactory and nasotrigeminal function, including modern electroencephalography (EEG) analysis of brain responses both in the time domain and in the time-frequency (TF) domain.

[Aerobic exercises during mouth breathing do not change the detection threshold of H2S].

Background: In a previous study, the detection threshold for H2S during aerobic exercise worsened with forced nasal breathing. The cause remained unclear. It is to be examined how the detection threshold changes with exclusive mouth breathing.

[Aerobic exercises worsen the detection threshold of short H2S pulses].

Background: Whether smelling is reduced during aerobic exercise is described contradictorily in the sparse literature.

Material And Methods: To clarify this question, in healthy subjects the passive detection thresholds for short HS stimuli were determined by means of a flow olfactometer in an inspiration-synchronous manner during nasal breathing in a staircase procedure during a resting phase, a subsequent submaximal load on a bicycle ergometer and a subsequent recovery phase. In parallel, the measurements of heart rate, blood pressure, blood lactate and body temperature were monitored to confirm an aerobic exercise.

Position paper on olfactory dysfunction.

Background: Olfactory dysfunction is an increasingly recognised condition, associated with reduced quality of life and major health outcomes such as neurodegeneration and death. However, translational research in this field is limited by heterogeneity in methodological approach, including definitions of impairment, improvement and appropriate assessment techniques. Accordingly, effective treatments for smell loss are limited.

Improvement of olfactory function after sinus surgery correlates with white matter properties measured by diffusion tensor imaging.

Impaired olfaction is associated with a volume decrease in the olfactory bulb as well as in the gray matter of cortical olfactory areas. On the other hand, restitution of an impaired olfaction results in a regain of volume in these regions. Studies investigating similar changes in the cerebral white matter are virtually not existent.

[On the assessment of spontaneous respiratory changes in respiration-olfactometry].

Introduction: Alterations of breathing pattern evoked by odors are used to proof the integrity of the olfactory system in the sense of respiratory olfactometry. Spontaneous breathing changes normally cannot be distinguished from evoked changes. It is therefore necessary to repeatedly apply stimuli with a pure odorant during tidal breathing, randomized with neutral air, to detect a majority of olfactory-evoked respiratory changes.

Position paper on olfactory dysfunction.

Background: Olfactory dysfunction is an increasingly recognised condition, associated with reduced quality of life and major health outcomes such as neurodegeneration and death. However, translational research in this field is limited by heterogeneity in methodological approach, including definitions of impairment, improvement and appropriate assessment techniques. Accordingly, effective treatments for smell loss are limited.

[The Development of First Operating Microscopes from Zeiss Jena and Oberkochen to Series Production].

The history of the first operating microscopes from Zeiss is often confusing, not painstaking and partly contradictory because of the parallel development of Zeiss Jena (East Germany) and Zeiss Oberkochen (West Germany). To investigate the early beginnings of the construction of the operating microscopes documents of the Carl Zeiss Archive and the Optical Museum in Jena, the memoirs of Prof. Dr.

[Chemosensory Evoked Changes of Breathing Pattern During Propofol-induced Sedation].

Background: The affective valence of an olfactory stimulus will be encoded in its respiratory response. Unpleasant odors shorten the inhalation of the first stimulated breaths in wakefulness and sleep. The aim of the present study was to assess the effekt of intravenous anesthetic propofol on the chemosensory evoked changes of breathing pattern.

[Global and Spatial Gustatory Function after Proven Unilateral Transsection of the Chorda Tympani].

Background: A transection of the chorda tympani results in loss of spatial gustatory function on the ipsilateral tongue. Most patients do not notice anymore this alteration. The cause is unclear.

Chemosensory event-related brain potentials (CSERP) after strictly monorhinal stimulation.

Using flow-olfactometer for chemosensory event related brain potentials (CSERP) the air escapes the contralateral nostril from the stimulated nostril via the nasopharynx. Theoretically, the escaping odorous airflow is able to stimulate the contralateral chemosensory receptors and might activate the olfactory or the trigeminal brain processes. Testing 18 healthy subjects, we were able to show that it was possible to generate CSERP by strictly monorhinal stimulation with closed contralateral nostril.

[Position paper "Chemosensory testing for expert opinion in smell disorders"].

Providing expert opinion in the context of smell disorders is often challenging, not only with regard to general aspects of providing an expert opinion but particularly with regard to chemosensory testing. Currently there is no consensus which chemosensory test should be selected and how they should be executed. This positions paper from Committee on Olfaction and Gustation of the German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery aims to give concrete recommendations for chemosensory testing for providing expert opinion for smell disorders with regard to the selection and execution of these test.