Relationship between uninasal anatomy and uninasal olfactory ability

Objective: To examine the relationship between uninasal anatomy and olfacto ry ability. Design: A stepwise analysis of variance was used to regress the logarithm o f the percentage of correct responses on the Odorant Confusion Matrix (a me asure of olfactory ability) against the logarithm of nasal volume measureme nts determined from computed tomographic scans. Participants: Nineteen patients with hyposmia whose olfactory losses were t hought to be related to conductive disorders. Results: After correcting for sex differences, a mathematical model was dev eloped in which the volume of 6 regions of the nasal cavity, 6 first-order interactions, and 3 second-order interactions accounted for 97% of the vari ation in the measure of olfactory ability. Conclusions: Increases in the size of compartments of the nasal cavity arou nd the olfactory cleft generally increase olfactory ability. Also, anatomic al differences in the nasal cavities of men and women may account, in part, for sex differences in olfactory ability.