Simple Sniff Test Could Diagnose Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases

At the University of Cincinnati, researchers Robert Frank and Robert Gesteland have developed a novel medical device that may be used to detect early warning signs of Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and other neurological diseases associated with aging. This new device, called the Sniff Magnitude Test (SMT), would diagnose olfactory disorders, which have been found to be indicative of early neurological damage in patients.

The SMT is currently under development by the WR Medical Electronics Company in Stillwater, MN. The company will produce five different prototypes of the test, which will be assessed by Frank and Gesteland. Already, an earlier prototype of the SMT is being tested in a German clinic, as well as the University of Pennsylvania. Funding for SMT prototype development is being provided by the National Institutes of Health, at a total amount of over $1.3 million.

According to Frank, a UC psychology professor, smell is one of our more delicate senses, and therefore is more prone to harm because of the smaller neurological investment in it. "So, that's the reason it might be acting a little bit like the canary in the mineshaft. Because it's more fragile, when you have insult to the brain, it may be sensitive to loss earlier in the disease process," states Frank. The premise of the test is that people with a normal sense of smell need only to take a small whiff of an odor before being able to detect the odor, while people with a damaged sense of smell need to take a longer whiff before detecting the same odor. Furthermore, when people with a normal sense of smell detect an odor, especially a strong odor, they undergo a reflex-like "recoil", halting intake of any more air.

Initially, the SMT would assess subjects by providing three scents: the scent of ripe cheese combined with rancid meat, the scent of burning material combined with a skunk-like odor, and the scent of banana. Because two out of the three scents are strong, pungent odors, a subject with a normal olfactory organ should take only a small whiff of these scents before stopping and recognizing them as odors.