Predictive value of abbreviated olfactory tests in prodromal Parkinson disease

Abstract

There is disagreement in the literature whether olfaction may show specific impairments in Parkinson Disease (PD) and if olfactory tests comprised of selected odors could be more specific for diagnosis. We sought to validate previously proposed subsets of the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) odors for predicting conversion to PD in an independent, prodromal cohort. Conversion to PD was assessed in 229 participants in the Parkinson At Risk Study who completed baseline olfactory testing with the UPSIT and up to 12 years of clinical and imaging evaluations. No commercially available or proposed subset performed better than the full 40-item UPSIT. The proposed “PD-specific” subsets also did not perform better than expected by chance. We did not find evidence for selective olfactory impairment in Parkinson disease. Shorter odor identification tests, including commercially available 10–12 item tests, may have utility for ease of use and cost, but not for superior predictive value.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 29, 2023
Source ID
10.1038/s41531-023-00530-z

Entities

People

  • Andrew Siderowf
  • Bernard Ravina
  • Charles H. Adler
  • Danna Jennings
  • David Russell
  • Eugene Lai
  • Grace Liang
  • Indu Subramanian
  • Irene Richards
  • James F. Morley
  • John Seibyl
  • Kapil Sethi
  • Kathryn Chung
  • Kenneth Marek
  • Marian L. Evatt
  • Matthew Stern
  • Pavan A Vaswani
  • Penelope Hogarth
  • Rachel Saunders-pullman
  • Robert Hauser
  • Samuel Frank
  • Tanya Simuni
  • The Pars Investigators

Organizations

  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Systems Analysis and Design
  • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Cognitive Aging in the Guam and Border Populations Affected by Alzheimer's Disease and Tau-Associated Dementias.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.