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The status of olfactory function and the striatal dopaminergic system in drug-induced parkinsonism

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An Erratum to this article was published on 31 August 2010

Abstract

Olfactory impairment has been reported in drug-induced parkinsonism (DIP), but the relationship between dopaminergic dysfunction and smell deficits in DIP patients has not been characterized. To this end, we studied 16 DIP patients and 13 patients affected by Parkinson’s disease (PD) using the “Sniffin’ Sticks” test and [123I] FP-CIT SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography). DIP patients were divided based on normal (n = 9) and abnormal (n = 7) putamen dopamine transporter binding. Nineteen healthy age- and sex-matched subjects served as controls of smell function. Patients with DIP and pathological putamen uptake had abnormal olfactory function. In this group of patients, olfactory TDI scores (odor threshold, discrimination and identification) correlated significantly with putamen uptake values, as observed in PD patients. By contrast, DIP patients with normal putamen uptake showed odor functions—with the exception of the threshold subtest—similar to control subjects. In this group of patients, no significant correlation was observed between olfactory TDI scores and putamen uptake values. The results of our study suggest that the presence of smell deficits in DIP patients might be more associated with dopaminergic loss rather than with a drug-mediated dopamine receptor blockade. These preliminary results might have prognostic and therapeutic implications, as abnormalities in these individuals may be suggestive of an underlying PD-like neurodegenerative process.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Mr. Anthony Steele, former Verona University senior lecturer in Medical English for his invaluable assistance with the linguistic revision of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche e della Visione, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

    Tommaso Bovi, Antonio Fiaschi & Michele Tinazzi

  2. IRCCS San Camillo, Venice, Italy

    Angelo Antonini

  3. Unità Operativa di Neurologia OCM Borgo Trento, Verona, Italy

    Sarah Ottaviani, Giuseppe Moretto & Michele Tinazzi

  4. Unità Operativa di Geriatria OCM Borgo Trento, Verona, Italy

    Angela Antonioli, Vincenzo Di Francesco & Mauro Zamboni

  5. Istituto di Anatomia, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

    Maria Paola Cecchini, Maria Antonietta Bassetto & Andrea Sbarbati

  6. IRCCS Centro Neurolesi “Bonino Pulejo”, Messina, Italy

    Francesco Osculati

Authors
  1. Tommaso Bovi
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  2. Angelo Antonini
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  3. Sarah Ottaviani
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  4. Angela Antonioli
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  10. Giuseppe Moretto
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  11. Andrea Sbarbati
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  13. Francesco Osculati
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tommaso Bovi.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00415-010-5692-3

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Bovi, T., Antonini, A., Ottaviani, S. et al. The status of olfactory function and the striatal dopaminergic system in drug-induced parkinsonism. J Neurol 257, 1882–1889 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-010-5631-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-010-5631-3

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