ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: This study quantifies the efficacy of a short-term systemic steroid therapy in the patients with anosmia or hyposmia using the butanol threshold test (BTT) and the visual analogue scale (VAS). MATERIALS AND METHOD: Thirty patients with anosmia or hyposmia were included in this study from June 1996 through April 1997. The patients were divided into inflammatory and noninflammatory groups depending on the etiology. We evaluated the patients before and after the systemic steroid admi-nistration using both BTT and VAS. RESULTS: Overall improvements of olfactory function was observed upto 70% by BTT and 53% by VAS, and the therapeutic effect of steroid on olfactory malfunction was statistically significant (p=0.0001). Improvements in the olfaction was measured by BTT, which correlated strongly with the measurements by VAS with statistical significance (r=0.77578, p=0.0001). The inflammatory group showed better steroid response (83%) than the noninflammatory group (61%), but there was no statistical significance. CONCLUSION: The systemic steroid administration may be effective in the treatment of olfactory disturbance with a good correlation between BTT and VAS.