SỰ KHÔNG NHẬN BIẾT TRIỆU CHỨNG GIẢM MÙI CỦA NGƯỜI BỆNH PARKINSON

Abstract

Background: Olfactory dysfunction is a common non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD). Hyposmia plays a supportive role in differentiating PD from other disorders such as essential tremor, drug-induced Parkinsonism, vascular Parkinsonism, and progressive supranuclear palsy. However, many PD patients do not recognize hyposmia by themselves before being evaluated with objective olfactory tests. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of unawareness of hyposmia in patients with PD, and to investigate factors associated with awareness ability of hyposmia in PD patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at University Medical Center HCMC, Ho Chi Minh city. Patients were diagnosed with PD according to the International Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Society 2015 Diagnostic Criteria. All participants were asked “Do you reduce your sense of smell?”. PD patients were assessed for odor identification ability using the VSIT (Vietnamese smell identification test). Socio-demographic data and PD related information were collected. Participants were assessed cognitive station using MMSE. PD patients were evaluated for disease severity using H&Y staging and the MDS-UPDRS (Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale). Results: Among 218 PD patients, 113 (51.8%) patients reported that they had normal olfaction, but their VSIT scores were less than 8. Among 184 PD patients with hyposmia, only 71 (38.6%) patients correctly identified that they had hyposmia. Our study showed that there was no difference in MMSE scores between the unaware group and the aware group (P=0.56). The group that was aware of hyposmia had older age, older age at onset, and higher education level than the unaware group (all P < 0.05). Conclusion: Many PD patients do not recognize hyposmia. Our study found that awareness of hyposmia in PD patients was related to education level, and was not significantly related to cognitive function assessed by the MMSE scale