Smell loss originates from peripheral
disorders, like intranasal obstruction
and olfactory cell injury, as well as central pathway
diseases. Information derived from electrophysiological
and psychophysical tests are useful
for identifying loss of smell, but not for discriminating
between central and peripheral
deficits. This is because conventional imaging
modalities are unable to deliver information
about functional olfactory performance. Although
functional imaging is able to show abnormal
changes in central olfactory pathways, it
seems that it is only possible to observe such
abnormalities in olfactory cell dysfunction. We
hypothesize that the scanning of peripheral olfactory
systems by radiolabeled odor molecules
may specifically reveal olfactory dysfunction
and may be useful for differentiating peripheral
from central olfactory disorders
