Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists
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Arch Clin Neuropsychol · Apr 2011
Olfactory deficits in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease in the polish elderly population.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent cause of dementia. For this reason, a simple, reliable, and inexpensive method of early AD detection is urgently required. The location of neuropathological changes in AD patients indicates the potential diagnostic utility of olfactory tests. ⋯ AD patients also identified significantly fewer odors than healthy participants of the same age. In both the AD patients and the elderly control group, odor identification ability correlated with performance in cognitive tests. It may be concluded that deficits in olfactory identification occur in AD and may be valuable as an indicator of this condition.