Intrinsic chemosensory signal recorded from the human nasal mucosa in patients with smell loss

Physiological investigation of olfactory receptor function in hyposmic or anosmic patients is rare. Pioneers examined the electro-olfactogram in patients with olfactory disturbance. Although the electro-olfactogram is an established method to record olfactory responses from human olfactory epithelium, the response is only measured at specific sites of the olfactory mucosa. In contrast to that the response of the olfactory epithelium to chemosensory stimuli can be studied in a specific nasal area by means of intrinsic optical signal recording. Five functionally anosmic patients were included in the present study. In all patients, responses could be obtained following trigeminal stimulation with CO₂. In some patients, responses could be obtained after olfactory stimulation with H₂S and PEA. The present data show that in the studied patients trigeminal function seems to be preserved, while it appears that in some patients olfactory function is preserved to a certain degree.