Introduction

Assessment of olfactory performance is of high clinical interest in the contexts of smell loss as well as neurological diseases, and recently gained attention in obesity research. Available olfactory tests, especially for assessing olfactory sensitivity, are time-consuming and require high cognitive capacity. Therefore, we aimed to establish a short procedure for reliably testing olfactory sensitivity using a subtest of the “Sniffin’ Sticks” battery. Evaluation criteria are test duration, validity, and test-retest reliability.

Methods

In a preliminary study using a within-subject repeated-measures design, we measured olfactory sensitivity for n-butanol in 20 young and healthy participants. We compared sensitivity obtained with three different measures during two sessions in a pseudo-randomized order: a standard single-staircase three-alternative forced-choice procedure with seven reversals (SSP_7); an abbreviated version with five reversals (SSP_5); and an ascending presentation of 16 dilution steps from lowest to highest odor concentration (brief ascending procedure, BAP).

Results

Compared to the SSP_7, the BAP was 51%, and the SSP_5 26% shorter in duration. Both the BAP and SSP_5 scores were highly correlated with the SSP_7. The test-retest reliability in all three tests was similar to that typically reported in olfactory research.

Conclusion

The abbreviated tests are valid measures of olfactory sensitivity. Especially, the BAP is as reliable as the standard method, but remarkably faster and easier to perform.

Implications

Thus, the short procedures bear potential for both research and clinical practice, especially for complex study designs with time constraints on olfactory testing and for patient populations with attention deficits.

中文翻译：

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使用“嗅探棒”快速评估嗅觉敏感性

介绍

在嗅觉丧失以及神经系统疾病的背景下，嗅觉性能的评估具有很高的临床意义，并且最近在肥胖症研究中得到了关注。现有的嗅觉测试，尤其是评估嗅觉敏感性的测试，既耗时又需要较高的认知能力。因此，我们的目标是建立一个简短的程序，使用“嗅探棒”电池的子测试可靠地测试嗅觉敏感性。评估标准是测试持续时间，有效性和重新测试的可靠性。

方法

在一项使用受试者内部重复测量设计的初步研究中，我们测量了20位年轻健康参与者的正丁醇嗅觉敏感性。我们以伪随机顺序比较了在两个会话期间使用三种不同方法获得的敏感度：标准的单楼梯三替代强迫选择过程（七个反转）（SSP_7）；具有五个冲销的缩写版本（SSP_5）；以及从最低到最高气味浓度的16个稀释步骤的升序显示（简短升序程序，BAP）。

结果

与SSP_7相比，BAP的持续时间缩短了51％，SSP_5的持续时间缩短了26％。BAP和SSP_5得分均与SSP_7高度相关。所有这三个测试中的重测可靠性与嗅觉研究中通常报告的相似。

结论

缩写测试是嗅觉敏感性的有效度量。特别是，BAP与标准方法一样可靠，但速度明显更快且更容易执行。

含义

因此，短程序具有研究和临床实践的潜力，特别是对于嗅觉测试有时间限制的复杂研究设计以及注意力不足的患者人群。