Association between autonomic dysfunction and olfactory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease in southern Chinese

BackgroundThe aim was to investigate the autonomic dysfunction between Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with olfactory dysfunction and PD patients without olfactory dysfunction in southern Chinese population.MethodsFifty-six PD patients with olfactory dysfunction and 44 patients without olfactory dysfunction were included. All patients were evaluated by Sniffin' sticks (SS-16), scales for outcomes in Parkinson's disease-autonomic questionnaire, Hamilton anxiety rating scale and Hamilton depression rating scaleResultsThe score of subpart of gastrointestinal symptoms and subpart of urinary symptoms were different in two groups (gastrointestinal symptoms: p value: 0.024; urinary symptoms: p value: 0.008). As for each question items, questions 2, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14 were correlated with SS-16 scores (Question 2: p value: 0.013; question 6: p value: 0.006; question 8: p value: 0.025; question 10: p value: 0.005; question 11: p value: 0.022; question 13: p value: <0.001; question 14: p value: 0.038). Question 10 and 14 were associated with olfactory dysfunction after adjusting disease duration and gender (Question 10: p value: 0.011, OR: 3.91; Question 14: p value: 0.027, OR: 3.27).ConclusionsGastrointestinal, urinary and a part of cardiovascular symptoms of SCOPA-AUT were associated with olfactory dysfunction in PD patients.