A test of odor fluency in patients with Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease

In the present study, an olfactory analog to the verbal fluency test was de signed and administered to 40 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 11 patients with Huntington's disease (HD). Because onset of AD is typically in the sixties while onset of HD is typically in the mid-thirties, the pati ent groups had their own control group, an older (ONC) and younger (YNC) co ntrol group, respectively. Both control groups included 40 participants who were age- and education-matched to their respective patient group. Odor th reshold, odor identification, and odor fluency measures were administered t o each participant. Results of the study indicate that patients with dement ia perform more poorly on all three measures of olfactory functioning. Our results suggest that tests of odor memory show differential performance in healthy and demented patients, leading to the suggestion that tests of olfa ctory functioning may be useful in detection and diagnosis of neurodegenera tive disease.