ALTERED TASTE SENSATION IN NEWLY-DIAGNOSED NIDDM

OBJECTIVE - To assess gustatory appreciation in newly diagnosed NIDDM patients and to determine whether it altered with the improvement of g lycemic control after treatment with diet and oral hypoglycemic drugs. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS - Assessments of taste, peripheral and au tonomic neural function, diet, and oral microbiological flora were per formed in 20 patients before and after treatment of hyperglycemia, 20 matched nondiabetic control subjects, and 11 patients with long durati on of diabetes and advanced peripheral neuropathy. RESULTS - Median to tal HbA(1) fell from 12.6 to 8.8% in new diabetic patients after 3-5 m onths of treatment. Electrical taste thresholds, detection threshold f or glucose, and recognition threshold for glucose and salt were increa sed in newly-diagnosed NIDDM patients compared with the control subjec ts. The dose-response curve to glucose (using a visual analogue scale [VAS]) of newly-diagnosed NIDDM patients was significantly impaired an d improved after treatment. By contrast, newly-diagnosed NIDDM patient s had normal VAS taste responses to fructose, sale, and urea. Measurem ents of somatic and autonomic nerve function did not correlate with el ectrical or chemical taste function. CONCLUSIONS - Newly-diagnosed NID DM patients have a blunted taste response, which displays a degree of specificity to glucose, is partially reversed after correction of hype rglycemia, and is independent of somatic or autonomic nerve function. This taste abnormality may influence the premorbid choice of nutrients , with a preference for sweet-tasting foods, thereby exacerbating hype rglycemia.