Assessment of sense of taste in Italian Centenarians

The Italian multicentric study on centenarians (IMSC) was aimed at assessing the level of preservation of the sense of taste, and at estimating to what extent the recognition of various gustative stimuli can give satisfaction and information regarding the surrounding environment for the centenarians. Taste sensitivity has been qualitatively established in a group of 126 Italian centenarians (mean age 101.9 \ub1 1.4 years) and compared to that of a group of 100 elderly subjects (mean age 70.5 \ub1 5.0 years). All the individuals included in the study groups had a mini mental state examination (MMSE) score larger than 19. The results revealed that taste sensitivity is significantly reduced in the centenarians; as a matter of fact, the elderly control subjects are able to perceive taste stimuli in 84.25 \ub1 3.40% of the testing, while the centenarians were successful only in 74.23 \ub1 6.19% of the experiments (P < 0.001). Furthermore, elderly subjects can correctly recognize taste stimuli in 70% of the testings, while correct recognition amounted only to 49.25% in cases of centenarians assessed. In spite of these differences between the elderly and centenarians, the latter are still able to perceive and recognize taste stimuli adequately, and as a consequence, are able to obtain information on tastes and receive a sufficient sensory stimulation through the tasting pathway

Laboratory parameters of italian centenarians

A consortium of 20 university departments of geriatrics and gerontology conducted the Italian Multicentric Study on Centenarians (IMSC), in order to assess the socio-economic, clinical and biological conditions of the Italian centenarians. The investigation involved 382 subjects randomly selected from a total of 1162 centenarians (234 men and 928 women), recorded by a census carried out until 31 December, 1993. Their case history, clinical and socio-economic data were recorded on a computerized clinical case sheet. Blood samples for the purpose of the present investigations were drawn from 257 of them. A great proportion (79%) of these latter subjects displayed satisfactory general conditions in their laboratory parameters, 18.3% of them had fairly good clinical conditions even with slightly modified laboratory parameters. Only a low percentage (2.8%) had poor general conditions with a marked anemia, hyperazotemia and uric acid levels. Long duration diabetes was practically absent, and only 5.5% of our centenarians displayed hyperglycemia with a mean duration time of 9.3 years. The prevalence of subjects with hypercholesterolemia was 31.1%. Only 4.3% of centenarians was affected by mixed form of dyslipidemia (hypertriglyceridemia associated with hypercholesterolemia), confirming that elevated blood lipid contents jeopardize really long survival

Centenarians in good health conditions

The increased survival of the population represents the most relevant demographic phenomenon during the end of the 20th century. Aging of the population is correlated with two factors: (i) reduction of the birth rate, and (ii) decrease of mortality rate. The progressive increase of the advanced age suggested the necessity of analyzing absolutely new aspects and facts, namely the properties of centenarians. The true centenarian subjects are in good clinical conditions, therefore, we can call them healthy centenarians. This is the reason why we can classify the centenarians in 3 groups on the basis of the criteria evaluating the clinical and physical conditions of them (groups A, B, C, being in good, moderate or poor clinical conditions, respectively). The healthy centenarian subject had overcome the negative environmental factors, and therefore, his/her survival is accompanied by a slow and gradual loss of the reserves of functional capacities, i.e., the exhaustion of the factors being the true determinants of the longevity