CLINICAL EVALUATION OF OLFACTION USING A SNIFF DEVICE

气味丧失是数百万美国人面临的重大健康和安全问题。不幸的是，嗅觉功能的临床评估并不是常规的，因为没有快速、廉价和有效的嗅觉测试。一项改进的测试将加强对嗅觉丧失和包括阿尔茨海默病在内的几种神经退行性疾病的检测和治疗。该项目的目标是开发一种基于探索性嗅探行为的新测试。初步研究表明，嗅觉正常的人在闻到异味时会减少嗅觉强度，而失去细微感觉的人则不会。这种方法的可行性将通过证明嗅觉测试具有心理测量学和实用功能，使其优于替代测试。第二阶段的资金将用于进行额外的有效性测试，并开发嗅探测试的商业版本。嗅觉测试设备的开发将为临床医生提供一种评估嗅觉功能的方法，无论一个人的年龄、文化背景或智力功能状态如何，这种方法都是有效的。这项测试将使嗅觉的标准化、广泛性和常规性测试成为可能，从而改善嗅觉丧失的诊断和治疗。拟议的商业应用：超过4200万美国人面临嗅觉丧失的风险。根据最广泛使用的嗅觉临床测试(UPSIT)的成本，改进后的嗅觉测试的商业潜力估计约为10亿美元。由于嗅探测试跨越了语言和文化的障碍，因此很明显有机会进入一个更大的国际市场，估计有2.6亿人。

Smell loss is a significant health and safety problem for millions of Americans. Unfortunately, clinical assessment of smell function is not routinely performed because a rapid inexpensive and valid test of olfaction is not available. An improved test would enhance the detection and treatment of smell loss and several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. The goal of the proposed project is to develop a new test based on exploratory sniffing behavior. Preliminary studies show that people with a normal sense of smell reduce sniff magnitude when they encounter a malodor, while people who have lost their sense of small do not. The feasibility of this approach will be demonstrated by showing that the sniff test possesses psychometric and practical features that make it superior to alternative tests. Phase II funding will be used to conduct additional validity tests and to develop a commercial version of the sniff test. Development of the sniff test device will provide clinicians with a method of evaluating olfactory function that is valid irrespective of a person's age, cultural background or state of intellectual function. This test will permit standardized, widespread and routine testing of the sense of smell, and thus improve the diagnosis and treatment of smell loss. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: Over 42 million Americans are at-risk for olfactory loss. Based on the cost of the most widely-used clinical test of olfaction (the UPSIT) an estimate of the commercial potential of an improved olfactory test is of the order of $1 billion. Since the sniff test crosses barriers of language and cultural, there is a clear opportunity to access a much larger international market, estimated at 260 million people.