Laterality of the olfactory event-related potential response.

In experimental practice, odors are commonly applied to only one nostril for recordings of olfactory event-related potentials (OERPs), but the lateralization aspect of the OERP response is unclear regarding both stimulated nostril and cortical topography. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether stimulated-nostril side affects OERP amplitudes and latencies and whether these potentials indicate lateralization of brain response in healthy, right-handed, young adults. OERPs were recorded from nine electrode sites in response to monorhinal stimulation with amyl acetate in 28 participants.

Relationship between self-reported odor intolerance and sensitivity to inhaled capsaicin: proposed definition of airway sensory hyperreactivity and estimation of its prevalence.

Study Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the behavioral consequences of self-reported odor sensitivity with the chemical sensitivity scale for sensory hyperreactivity (CSS-SHR) and cough sensitivity to inhaled capsaicin. We also wanted to estimate the prevalence of airway sensory hyperreactivity (SHR), which was defined as a positive CSS-SHR score in combination with a positive capsaicin inhalation test result.

Design: A general population-based study with randomly selected individuals after stratification for age and gender.

Residual nonunion following vascularised fibular graft treatment for congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia: a report of two cases.

Resection and reconstruction using a vascularised fibular graft is a viable alternative treatment for congenital pseudarthrosis of the tibia, although distal junctional nonunion and residual deformity are known complications that are difficult to treat. We illustrate 2 cases in which bony union was achieved following a technique using fibular grafting and intramedullary nailing, without additional bone grafting. This technique was feasible because of hypertrophy of the fibular graft.

Measurement of patellar thickness in relation to patellar resurfacing.

Patellar thickness is an important consideration for resurfacing in total knee arthroplasty. A patella of 25 mm in thickness is not suitable for resurfacing using the currently available total knee systems. A cross sectional study on patellar thickness using plain radiographs was undertaken on 56 patients.

Olfactory and chemosomatosensory function in pregnant women assessed with event-related potentials.

The purpose of the study was to better understand past findings of nasal chemosensory hypersensitivity in pregnant women by recording chemosensory event-related potentials (CSERPs) for information about cortical neuronal allocation (amplitudes) and temporal processing (latencies) of three concentrations of pyridine ranging from predominantly olfactory to trigeminal in activation in 15 pregnant and 15 non-pregnant women. CSERP components of primarily sensory (N1 and P2) and cognitive (P3) origin were evaluated. The results displayed no group differences in either N1 or P2 amplitudes or latencies, but tendencies of larger amplitudes and shorter latencies for P3 in pregnant women.

Prevalence and risk factors for self-reported odour intolerance: the Skövde population-based study.

Objectives: The present study was performed to determine the prevalence of odour intolerance in adults with respect to both self-reported general intolerance and affective and behavioural consequences. Furthermore, we aimed to relate odour intolerance to explanatory variables and risk factors.

Method: This is a cross-sectional, population-based epidemiological study.

Olfactory disorders and their consequences for quality of life.

Olfactory disorders are common in the general population, but research into the consequences of these disorders has been lacking. Not until recently, when specific tools for assessing changes in quality of life due to olfactory disorders have become available, have systematic investigations been conducted. In this article we present the most important roles that olfaction plays in humans and review the scientific literature on the consequences of olfactory disorders.

Prevalence of self-reported poor odor detection sensitivity: the Skövde population-based study.

Objective: To enable adequate planning of ENT healthcare it is important to know the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in the general population. Whether an individual will actually seek medical attention for olfactory dysfunction is likely to depend predominantly on his/her self-evaluation of the sense of smell. This motivated an investigation of the prevalences of self-reported poorer- and better-than-normal odor detection sensitivity in the general population.

Environmental odor intolerance in pregnant women.

Previous findings indicating that pregnant women experience a shift in odor sensitivity and hedonics raise the question of whether these changes evoke adverse reactions to odorous and pungent environmental substances in daily activities, to a larger extent in pregnant than in nonpregnant women. Forty-four women in pregnancy weeks 21-23 and 44 nonpregnant women were therefore compared with respect to affective reactions to and behavioral disruptions by odorous/pungent daily environments by means of the questionnaire-based, 21-item Chemical Sensitivity Scale (CSS). This scale refers to neurasthenic and sensory/somatic symptoms and includes the 11 items of the Chemical Sensitivity Scale for Sensory Hyperreactivity (CSS-SHR).

Chemosensory perception and event-related potentials in self-reported chemical hypersensitivity.

Anormal chemosensory perception has been identified as a possible mechanism underlying odor intolerance, but research in this domain has yet been rather limited. The main objective of the present study was to investigate total perceived intensity, unpleasantness, sensory irritation, and cortical activity assessed with chemosensory event-related potentials (ERPs) for three concentrations of pyridine ranging from predominantly olfactory to trigeminal in activation. Results from 19 individuals with self-reported chemical hypersensitivity and 19 controls with self-reported normal chemical sensitivity show that the hypersensitive group, compared to controls, rated the pyridine stimuli to be more intense and unpleasant, and that these group differences increased with pyridine concentration.

Consequences of olfactory loss and adopted coping strategies.

Unlabelled: The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of loss of smell as regards the quality of life and the coping strategies used.

Methods: Seventy-two patients with anosmia (46%) or hyposmia (54%) filled in the validated Multi-Clinic Smell and Taste Questionnaire, the validated General Well-being Schedule (GWBS), and answered other questions shown to be of good validity.

Results: Several kinds of negative effects, risks associated with the loss, interference with daily routines and deteriorations in well-being were common.

Gender differences in factors affecting rejection of food in healthy young Swedish adults.

With the objectives to better understand gender-related differences in variables of importance for food intake, and interrelations between these variables, 100 healthy, young women and 100 healthy, young men responded to self-administrated questionnaires about general food rejection, learned illness-associated food aversions, disgust (the Disgust Scale), food neophobia (the Food Neophobia Scale), nausea and appetite. The results show that food rejection and aversions were more common in women (69 and 38%, respectively) than in men (47 and 18%), and that women are more disgust sensitive than men. However, no differences between women and men were observed regarding reasons for rejecting food (predominantly sensory attributes), prevalence of gastrointestinal illness as an associated aversion symptom (95 vs 89%), type of aversive food due to associated illness (predominantly high protein items), or food neophobia.

Gender differences in chemosensory perception and event-related potentials.

The present study investigated chemosensory gender differences by means of ratings of total nasal chemosensory intensity, unpleasantness and sensory irritation and simultaneous recordings of chemosensory event-related potentials (CSERPs) for three concentrations of the olfactory/trigeminal stimulus pyridine in 19 women and 17 men, all young adults. Results show that, compared to men, women gave higher intensity and unpleasantness ratings, in particular for the highest stimulus concentration. The gender differences in perceived intensity are reflected in the signal-to-noise ratio of the individual CSERP averages, revealing more identifiable early components (P1, N1) in women than in men.

Demographic and cognitive predictors of cued odor identification: evidence from a population-based study.

This study investigated demographic and cognitive correlates of cued odor identification in a population-based sample from the Betula project: 1906 healthy adults varying in age from 45 to 90 years were assessed in a number of tasks tapping various cognitive domains, including cognitive speed, semantic memory and executive functioning. The results revealed a gradual and linear deterioration in cued odor identification across the adult life span. Overall, females identified more odors than men, although men and women performed at the same level in the oldest age cohort (85-90 years).

A longitudinal descriptive study of self-reported abnormal smell and taste perception in pregnant women.

Self-reported abnormal sensitivity, qualitative distortions and phantom sensations with respect to smell and taste was assessed with a longitudinal design, based on questions referring to gestational weeks 13-16 and 31-34 of pregnancy in comparison with 9-12 weeks post partum and with non-pregnant women with corresponding time durations and intervals. The results show that abnormal smell and/or taste perception was reported by 76% of the pregnant women, typically believed to be caused by their pregnancy. Increased smell sensitivity was found to be very common at the early stage of pregnancy (67% of all pregnant respondents) and occasionally accompanied by qualitative smell distortions (17%) and phantom smells (14%).

Prevalence of olfactory dysfunction: the skövde population-based study.

Objectives/hypothesis: Patients with olfactory dysfunction appear repeatedly in ear, nose, and throat practices, but the prevalence of such problems in the general adult population is not known. Therefore, the objectives were to investigate the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in an adult Swedish population and to relate dysfunction to age, gender, diabetes mellitus, nasal polyps, and smoking habits.

Study Design: Cross-sectional, population-based epidemiological study.

A short Chemical Sensitivity Scale for assessment of airway sensory hyperreactivity.

Objectives: A short version of the 21-item Chemical Sensitivity Scale (CSS), called the Chemical Sensitivity Scale for Sensory Hyperreactivity (CSS-SHR), was developed and evaluated for the quantifying of self-reported affective reactions to and behavioral disruptions in daily activities by odorous/pungent substances among patients with sensory hyperreactivity (SHR) for clinical and epidemiological studies.

Methods: Twenty-two patients with clinically diagnosed SHR and 124 control participants responded to the CSS and to additional questions about chemical sensitivity for the evaluation of the CSS-SHR.

Results: Eleven of the 21 items of the CSS were selected, on statistical grounds, to constitute the CSS-SHR, which was found to generate approximately normal distributions, have good test-retest reliability (r(xy)=0.

Circadian rhythm and desensitization in chemosensory event-related potentials in response to odorous and painful stimuli.

Olfactory (H2S) and trigeminal (CO2) event-related potentials (ERPs) were studied with respect to circadian rhythm and desensitization. ERPs, perceived odor and pain intensity, oral temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, nasal volume, and sleepiness were assessed four times at 04:00, 08:00, 12:00, 16:00, 20:00, and 24:00 hr in five young men. For each of these 24 sessions per participant, H2S and CO2 were each presented in 15 series of five stimuli with a 5-s ISI within and 30-s ISI between series.

Mechanical failure of Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS) fixation in intertrochanteric fracture of the femur.

We studied 60 intertrochanteric fractures of the femur fixed with Dynamic Hip Screw (DHS). There were 10 cases (16.7%) with cutting-out of device through femoral head and neck.

A Scandinavian adaptation of the Multi-Clinic Smell and Taste Questionnaire: evaluation of questions about olfaction.

Objective: A Scandinavian adaptation of the Multi-Clinic Smell and Taste Questionnaire (MCSTQ-Sc) was evaluated with respect to comprehension and test-retest reliability for responses to questions about olfactory dysfunction (abnormal sensitivity, parosmia and phantosmia) and related questions about medical history and consequences of olfactory dysfunction.

Material And Methods: Comprehension was evaluated in a first study in 20 patients with chief complaints of olfactory dysfunction by comparing questionnaire- and interview-based responses. Test-retest reliability was evaluated in a second study in 30 other patients with olfactory complaints.

Age-associated increases in intensity discrimination for taste.

Impaired taste sensation in the aging person may affect the appreciation of food and beverages and compromise nutritional status. Changes in flavor perception may be due to altered ability to discriminate between intensities of suprathreshold taste stimuli. An interesting question is whether all taste qualities (sweet, salty, sour, bitter) show similar age-associated decline in intensity discrimination.

Applicability of the Scandinavian Odor Identification Test: a Finnish-Swedish comparison.

The possibility of using the Scandinavian Odor Identification Test (SOIT), developed for clinical purposes for use with Swedish subjects, for assessment of another northern European population was studied by comparing test performance between 127 Finnish and 127 Swedish participants, who were matched for age (19-85 years) and gender. The results showed very similar performance between countries and demonstrated, as expected, age- and gender-related differences in performance. Test-retest reliability was as good in Finnish as in Swedish subgroups of participants and no significant difference between countries in terms of diagnostic distribution (normosmia, hyposmia and anosmia) was found when using existing cut-off scores.

Clinical measurement of longitudinal femoral overgrowth following fracture in children.

We have studied residual limb length inequality following femoral shaft fractures in 62 children. From 61.2% of the children who had shortening of more than 1 cm at union, 34.

Bacteriological study and its role in the management of open tibial fracture.

Sixty percent of open fracture wounds are contaminated at the time of injury. Despite that, the necessity for sequential multiple cultures and sensitivity studies for open fractures and their interpretation are still controversial. Predebridement, intraoperative, postoperative swabs and swabs in established infection for culture and sensitivity study were taken in 33 open tibial fractures over a 6 months period.