Evaluating a person’s sense of smell may help monitor disease progression in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a recent study.
Almost a third of MS patients studied showed signs of smell loss in clinical evaluations and the degree of impairment correlated with clinical measures of disease, such as disability, MS duration, and cognitive performance. “Smell appears to be a disease marker in MS and [patient-reported outcome measures] and olfactory ability tests may be introduced into core outcome sets used in clinical trials in MS,” the researchers wrote. The study, “Smell as a Disease Marker in Multiple Sclerosis,” was published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.
An increasing number of studies show MS patients have a loss of sense of smell that can emerge early in the disease, but reports on the prevalence of symptoms vary significantly.
Smell tests could be a way to monitor MS progression and the effectiveness of treatments, it’s been suggested. A small study found that measures of olfactory threshold, or how sensitive a person’s nose is, could predict relapse risk in MS patients.
Researchers in Greece investigated whether there is a correlation between hyposmia (loss of sense of smell) and various clinical characteristics in MS patients.
The analysis included 115 MS patients with a mean age of 38.7 who were recruited during clinical practice at a multiple sclerosis center in Greece. A total of 56 healthy participants matched in age and sex served as a control group.
Most patients had relapsing-remitting MS (72.2%) and the remaining had a primary progressive (13.9%) or secondary progressive (13.9%) disease course.
Patients had been living with the disease for an average of 10 years and had a mean score on the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) of 3.7, reflecting moderate to significant disability, but retaining the ability to walk.
complete story: https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.c...ll-test-study/
Almost a third of MS patients studied showed signs of smell loss in clinical evaluations and the degree of impairment correlated with clinical measures of disease, such as disability, MS duration, and cognitive performance. “Smell appears to be a disease marker in MS and [patient-reported outcome measures] and olfactory ability tests may be introduced into core outcome sets used in clinical trials in MS,” the researchers wrote. The study, “Smell as a Disease Marker in Multiple Sclerosis,” was published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.
An increasing number of studies show MS patients have a loss of sense of smell that can emerge early in the disease, but reports on the prevalence of symptoms vary significantly.
Smell tests could be a way to monitor MS progression and the effectiveness of treatments, it’s been suggested. A small study found that measures of olfactory threshold, or how sensitive a person’s nose is, could predict relapse risk in MS patients.
Researchers in Greece investigated whether there is a correlation between hyposmia (loss of sense of smell) and various clinical characteristics in MS patients.
The analysis included 115 MS patients with a mean age of 38.7 who were recruited during clinical practice at a multiple sclerosis center in Greece. A total of 56 healthy participants matched in age and sex served as a control group.
Most patients had relapsing-remitting MS (72.2%) and the remaining had a primary progressive (13.9%) or secondary progressive (13.9%) disease course.
Patients had been living with the disease for an average of 10 years and had a mean score on the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) of 3.7, reflecting moderate to significant disability, but retaining the ability to walk.
complete story: https://multiplesclerosisnewstoday.c...ll-test-study/