Evaluation of sniffin' sticks and our regional olfactory test by aplication in a Diyarbakir population

Aım: The aim of this study is evaluation of ''Sniffin' Sticks'' test and our regional olfactory test by aplication in a Diyarbakır population and to determine normal olfactory scores by using this two tests. Materıals and Methods: Our 91 male 110 female healty, over aged 18 volunteers were studied during the period from January 2014-June 2014. We examined subjects in the outpatient clinic of Otorhynolaryngology Department of Diyarbakır Dicle University Medikal Faculty. After taking medikal story, anterior rhinoscopy, nasal endoscopy with 30° of scope and routine ear nose and throat examination were performed. We found olfactory scores of volunteers by using 'Sniffin' Sticks' test and our regional modified olfactory test batteries. This scores included odor thresold-modified odor thresold (OT-mOT), odor discrimination-modified odor discrimination (OD-mOD), odor identification-modified odor identification scores and composite of the three scores TDI-mTDI scores. The thresold-diskrimination-identification (TDI-mTDI) score as the combined score of the other three scores tell us the grade of olfaction. Fındıngs: Two hundred and one healty volunteers whose age range between 20-72 were included to the study. Overall mean odor threshold (OT), odor discrimination (OD), odor identification (OI) and TDI scores for test were 10,73±2,35, 11,11±1,94, 11,32±2,147 and 33,11±5,9 respectively. The TDI score at the 10th percentile was 26. The scores below this value (n:13) considered as hyposmic. Overall mean modified odor treshhold (mOT), modified odor discrimination (mOD), modified odor identification (mOI) and mTDI scores for regional modified olfactory test were 10,88±2,3, 12,±2,1, 11,95±2,1 and 34,68±6,5 respectively. The mTDI score at the 10th percentile was 26. The scores below this value (n:10) considered as hyposmic. When we compare two tests; odor threshold and modified odor threshold scores variety were statistically not significant, but in comparison of all other scores including TDI-mTDI scores the variety were statistically significant (p<0.01). Discussion: In this study, we determined to evaluate ' Sniffin' Sticks' test and our regional olfactory test by aplication in a Diyarbakır population and to find normal olfactory scores by using this two tests. Previous studies showed us normal olfactory scores for Turkish population were lower than other countries. According to our study; regional modifications could increase olfactory scores by rising usability of the test. Reproducing international olfactory tests with modifications familiar to Turkish nation, can provide low-cost and more common usage. Obviously we need to standardise modifications according to national regions and multicentered more crowded studies. KeyWords: Odor, Sniffin' Sticks, modified test