Diagnostic tools in Rhinology EAACI position paper

This EAACI Task Force document aims at providing the readers with a comprehensive and complete overview of the currently available tools for diagnosis of nasal and sino-nasal disease. We have tried to logically order the different important issues related to history taking, clinical examination and additional investigative tools for evaluation of the severity of sinonasal disease into a consensus document. A panel of European experts in the field of Rhinology has contributed to this consensus document on Diagnostic Tools in Rhinology

Qualitative and Quantitative Representation of Taste Disturbances: How We Do It by Pentagon Chart

Taste is a chemical sense responding to chemical stimuli. In our daily practice as ENT practitioners or Neurologists we do come across patients complaining of taste disturbances. Tests for taste have to be performed regularly in the clinical centres as well as in neurological labs as a part of complete work up for neurotology cases. Assessment of taste sensation can be easily done in a neurological clinic by chemogustometry as described by Claussen. The stimuli used are chemicals, representative substances for the four qualities of sweet, salty, sour and bitter, in graded solutions. These semi-quantitative results are plotted on a pentagon scheme devised by Claussen. The points of the best results for glucose, sodium chloride, citric acid, phenylthio-urea and quinine then are connected with a coloured line. That gives a linked graphic structure, which can be read by the physician at one glance. Different patterns are obtained for normal taste, taste-blindness for phenylthio-urea, ageusia, partial ageusias for glucose, or sodium chloride or citric acid or quinine or their combinations and parageusias. In this article we present different patterns of taste disturbances depicted on the pentagon chart highlighting the easy interpretation of chemogustometry