I thought this item might interest those who have mentioned smell disorders. See, we weren't dippy, just a few paces in front of the researchers. START *************************** 12:35 PM ET 05/12/97 Loss of smell may offer clues about Parkinson's LONDON (Reuter) - Most patients with Parkinson's disease have trouble smelling, which could offer clues to the cause and diagnosis of the disease, British researchers reported Monday. Neurologist Christopher Hawkes and colleagues at Leeds General Infirmary said tests comparing 96 Parkinson's patients with 96 healthy volunteers showed measurable damage to the olfactory, or smelling, system. Smell was impaired in 70 to 90 percent of Parkinson's patients, with damage in the olfactory bulb, which links the nasal passages and the brain, they found. ``Odors that were most readily misidentified were lemon, pizza, wintergreen, rose and clove,'' they wrote in a report in the British Medical Association's Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Smell tests or inspection of the olfactory bulb could be used to help diagnose Parkinson's and other brain-damaging diseases such as Alzheimer's, they suggested. Alzheimer's, the brain-wasting illness that causes dementia and death, is also known to affect smell. But how can a brain disease do this? ``One possibility is that Parkinson's disease and perhaps Alzheimer's disease might be caused by a virus or chemical agent that gains entry to the central nervous system via the nose,'' wrote the researchers. They cited reports that showed the herpes virus could get into the brain through the nose. It could also be that the loss of smell is simply a progression of the brain damage caused by Parkinson's. Then again there could be a genetic component. Some patients with Parkinson's have a defect in the P-450 gene, which in monkeys is found in large concentrations in the olfactory bulb. U.S. figures show that Parkinson's is the second most common brain-wasting disease after Alzheimer's, affecting about one percent of the population. It is marked by a shortage of the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical important for carrying messages between nerve cells affecting movement. Victims, who cannot be cured, can suffer shaking, loss of speech and other symptoms. ^REUTER@ ********************** END Jim ************************************ James F. Slattery, JP, MACS JandA Computing Consultancy E-mail: [log in to unmask] ************************************