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Abnormalities of taste and smell were studied in 29 patients after head trauma. These abnormalities included decreased taste acuity (hypogeusia), a distortion of taste acuity (dysgeusia), decreased smell acuity (hyposmia), and a distortion of smell acuity (dysosmia). This syndrome can occur even after minimal head trauma and can begin months after the moment of injury. The patients exhibited a significant decrease in total serum zinc concentration (patients, 77 ± 3 μg/100 ml, mean ± 1 SEM, vs controls, 99 ± 2 μg/100 ml, P>0·001) and a significant increase in total serum copper concentrations (113 ± 4 μg/100 ml vs 100 ± 2 μg/100 ml, P

Bell’s palsy is a common and well-known disease. Nevertheless, diagnosis may be difficult in some cases with very slight paresis, and prognosis is always a hazard. Many techniques, mostly electrophysi

The authors emphasize the interest of certain observations on account of the specificity of the symptoms and the discreteness of the lesions. In these cases, pathology in man can be considered acting as “stereotaxic targets”, and therefore valuable for the understanding of thalamic functions.

An evaluation of the effects of partial conduction ageusia on licking an air-stream was undertaken. Rats with bilateral lingual nerve divisions showed significant reductions in pre to post-operative air-drinking rates, while neither rats with severed glossopharyngeal nerves, nor sham operated controls exhibited similar outcomes. Interruption of some sensory input associated with the physical characteristics of an air-stream appeared to exert partial control over responding for air.

At the time Henkin et al 1 reported the new syndrome, idiopathic hypogeusia (diminished taste acuity) with dysgeusia (distorted taste perception), hyposmia (decreased smell acuity), and dysosmia (distorted smell perception), they recounted the findings in the first 35 patients who came for study and treatment, although at that time, the researchers had knowledge of about 3,000 patients with this disorder. Two results of that first report merit special emphasis: (1) electron microscopic examination demonstrated abnormalities of the taste buds, and (2) the hypogeusia improved with administration of zinc. Since then, the same group of workers 2 at the National Heart and Lung Institute have enlarged their experience to include more than 4,000 patients with the syndrome and have reported details in 103 patients. There were 48 men and 55 women whose ages ranged from 25 to 81 years (mean age, 55 years), and the duration of symptoms before patients were

To the Editor.— Idiopathic hypogeusia with dysgeusia, hyposmia and dysosmia cannot be called a new syndrome or a new disease. Frostig and Spies mentioned these psychosensory disturbances in 1939. 1 They are but a part of a very old disease which causes the perception to change—perceptual dysfunction, as result of a vitamin B 3 deficiency. The disease is subclinical pellagra and the cure is niacin. Subclinical pellagra is a deficiency syndrome characterized by the presence of perceptual changes affecting any or all of the special and properioceptive senses, associated with neurasthenia. It is due to a deficiency of or an increased demand for niacin, the administration of which causes prompt disappearance of the symptom complex. 2 Henkin et al have discovered changes in perception involving only two of the special senses—taste and smell. I would predict that 90% of these cases could fulfill the criteria for subclinical pellagra. In my