Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis

In this study we demonstrate that myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease strongly identified with deficient acetylcholine receptor transmission at the post-synaptic neuromuscular junction, is accompanied by a profound loss of olfactory function. Twenty-seven MG patients, 27 matched healthy control...

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Main Authors:	Leon-Sarmiento, Fidias E., Bayona, Edgardo A., Bayona-Prieto, Jaime, Osman, Allen, Doty, Richard L.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2012
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3474814/

id	pubmed-3474814
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-34748142012-10-18 Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis Leon-Sarmiento, Fidias E. Bayona, Edgardo A. Bayona-Prieto, Jaime Osman, Allen Doty, Richard L. Research Article In this study we demonstrate that myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease strongly identified with deficient acetylcholine receptor transmission at the post-synaptic neuromuscular junction, is accompanied by a profound loss of olfactory function. Twenty-seven MG patients, 27 matched healthy controls, and 11 patients with polymiositis, a disease with peripheral neuromuscular symptoms analogous to myasthenia gravis with no known central nervous system involvement, were tested. All were administered the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) and the Picture Identification Test (PIT), a test analogous in content and form to the UPSIT designed to control for non-olfactory cognitive confounds. The UPSIT scores of the myasthenia gravis patients were markedly lower than those of the age- and sex-matched normal controls [respective means (SDs) = 20.15 (6.40) & 35.67 (4.95); p<0.0001], as well as those of the polymiositis patients who scored slightly below the normal range [33.30 (1.42); p<0.0001]. The latter finding, along with direct monitoring of the inhalation of the patients during testing, implies that the MG-related olfactory deficit is unlikely due to difficulties sniffing, per se. All PIT scores were within or near the normal range, although subtle deficits were apparent in both the MG and PM patients, conceivably reflecting influences of mild cognitive impairment. No relationships between performance on the UPSIT and thymectomy, time since diagnosis, type of treatment regimen, or the presence or absence of serum anti-nicotinic or muscarinic antibodies were apparent. Our findings suggest that MG influences olfactory function to the same degree as observed in a number of neurodegenerative diseases in which central nervous system cholinergic dysfunction has been documented. Public Library of Science 2012-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3474814/ /pubmed/23082113 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045544 Text en © 2012 Leon-Sarmiento et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Leon-Sarmiento, Fidias E. Bayona, Edgardo A. Bayona-Prieto, Jaime Osman, Allen Doty, Richard L.
spellingShingle	Leon-Sarmiento, Fidias E. Bayona, Edgardo A. Bayona-Prieto, Jaime Osman, Allen Doty, Richard L. Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis
author_facet	Leon-Sarmiento, Fidias E. Bayona, Edgardo A. Bayona-Prieto, Jaime Osman, Allen Doty, Richard L.
author_sort	Leon-Sarmiento, Fidias E.
title	Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis
title_short	Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis
title_full	Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis
title_fullStr	Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis
title_full_unstemmed	Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis
title_sort	profound olfactory dysfunction in myasthenia gravis
description	In this study we demonstrate that myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease strongly identified with deficient acetylcholine receptor transmission at the post-synaptic neuromuscular junction, is accompanied by a profound loss of olfactory function. Twenty-seven MG patients, 27 matched healthy controls, and 11 patients with polymiositis, a disease with peripheral neuromuscular symptoms analogous to myasthenia gravis with no known central nervous system involvement, were tested. All were administered the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) and the Picture Identification Test (PIT), a test analogous in content and form to the UPSIT designed to control for non-olfactory cognitive confounds. The UPSIT scores of the myasthenia gravis patients were markedly lower than those of the age- and sex-matched normal controls [respective means (SDs) = 20.15 (6.40) & 35.67 (4.95); p<0.0001], as well as those of the polymiositis patients who scored slightly below the normal range [33.30 (1.42); p<0.0001]. The latter finding, along with direct monitoring of the inhalation of the patients during testing, implies that the MG-related olfactory deficit is unlikely due to difficulties sniffing, per se. All PIT scores were within or near the normal range, although subtle deficits were apparent in both the MG and PM patients, conceivably reflecting influences of mild cognitive impairment. No relationships between performance on the UPSIT and thymectomy, time since diagnosis, type of treatment regimen, or the presence or absence of serum anti-nicotinic or muscarinic antibodies were apparent. Our findings suggest that MG influences olfactory function to the same degree as observed in a number of neurodegenerative diseases in which central nervous system cholinergic dysfunction has been documented.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2012
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3474814/
_version_	1611917104615784448

Profound Olfactory Dysfunction in Myasthenia Gravis

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