Application of unilateral olfactory testing and clinical analysis of unilateral hyposmia / 中华耳鼻咽喉头颈外科杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate whether patients presenting with self-reported olfactory disorders demonstrates significant side difference in odour recognition by measuring separately for each nostril.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred and four patients with chief complaint of hyposmia were evaluated by medical history, physical examination, T&T olfactory testing and medical imaging. Smell was tested using T&T olfactometry in each nostril separately.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Based on the history and results from the clinical examination, unilateral sinonasal diseases and abnormal nasal structure were excluded. In almost one eighth of all presenting patients (13.46%), a side difference was detected. Especially, six of the patients were identified with lateralized hyposmia.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Olfactory testing could be performed in each nostril separately. The above findings suggested that testing each nostril separately was necessary so as not to miss unilateral hyposmia as a special clinical manifestation of olfactory disorder.</p>