[Taste threshold of four main tastes between healthy and diabetic individuals]

ABSTRACT

Diabetes mellitus is a famous metabolic disease with many serious complications. Some studies have documented taste changes in patients with diabetes mellitus and researchers evaluated the change in sweet taste perception in these patients but because of diabetes neuropathy, there is possibility to change in the perception of all four primary tastes. The purpose of this study was to determine the threshold for primary senses of tastes in diabetic patients in comparison with non-diabetics. This single-blind case-control study was implemented on ninety-six diabetic patients who attended Kerman Shahid Bahonar hospital and 99 healthy volunteers for detection of taste sensitivity for four primary tastes. Taste thresholds were detected by whole mouth taste method and use of five concentrations for each taste. The data were analyzed by Mann-whitney and spearman's tests. Statistical analyses indicate taste threshold measured for each taste yielded normal range for all tastes in diabetic group [0.032 molar for sucrose, 0.032 for sodium chloride, 0.001 molar for citric acid and 0.00001 molar for quinine hydrochloride] but there was a significant difference in perception of sweet taste between two groups [p=0.002]. Also there was a significant relationship between perception of bitter taste and gender and age in diabetic group [p=0.019, p=0.047]. Decreased sweet taste sensitivity may result in an increased preference for glucose in diabetic patients and may contribute to increased sugar use between them and leading to poor prognosis of the disease