Relationships between subjective taste sensations and electrogustometry findings in patients with taste disorders

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the relationships between subjective taste sensations and electrogustometry (EGM) findings in patients with taste disturbances according to the presence of burning mouth (BM) symptoms. Forty-six patients were included and asked to complete a questionnaire that contained questions on subjective taste sensations for the four basic taste qualities and the pattern of taste disorders such as ageusia, hypogeusia and dysgeusia. EGM was performed to measure detection thresholds. To examine the influence of BM symptoms, patients were divided into two groups: patients with and without BM symptoms. The patients consisted of 11 men and 35 women. The group without BM symptoms (n=26) had significantly lower degrees of subjective taste sensations for all taste qualities and higher correlation levels between subjective taste sensations and EGM thresholds than the group with BM symptoms (n=20). The patterns of taste disorders also showed more significant associations with the levels of subjective taste sensations in the patients without BM symptoms compared with those with BM symptoms. In conclusion, patients with taste disorders without BM symptoms had more severe taste disturbances than those with BM symptoms. The pathophysiology of taste disturbances differs according to the presence or absence of BM symptoms.

Keywords: burning mouth symptoms; electrogustometry; subjective taste sensations; taste disorders.