[Screening of olfaction with smell diskettes]

Aim of the study was the development of a new screening test of olfaction with reusable diskettes as odorant applicators.

A screening test of olfaction was designed using 8 diskettes containing different odorants. The diskettes can be opened to release the odor and are closed after testing. The test was designed as a triple forced multiple choice test using a questionnaire, resulting in a score from 0 to 8 correct answers. Ninety-one volunteers with a normal sense of smell and 13 patients with subjective hyposmia or anosmia were tested to validate the developed test. The same volunteers were also tested with the sniffin' sticks test, another screening test of olfaction that is already validated. After testing, the volunteers were asked to compare the two tests.

Among the 91 volunteers with normal sense of smell, 10 achieved a score of 7, and 81 a score of 8 in the smell disk test. The 13 patients with hyposmia or anosmia achieved a score between 0 and 5. Based on the test design, there is a probability of 99.74% that a person who achieves a score of 7 or 8 will have normal olfaction. In the sniffin' sticks test, 85 volunteers with normal sense of smell achieved a score in the normal range for this test (6-8) whereas 6 volunteers were below with a score of 4 or 5. The 13 patients with hyposmia or anosmia scored between 0 and 6. The smell disk test was preferred by 86 persons, the sniffin' sticks test by 5, and 12 assessed both tests as equal.

The developed screening test is reliable for identifying patients with a normal sense of smell, and it can distinguish them from patients with hyposmia and anosmia. The diskettes proved to be reliable and comfortable applicators for odorants in clinical practice.