Re: Smell things that others don't

[Guest guest]

Hmmmm. Well, I read that it's usually visual or auditory

hallucinations. Yet sometimes it's others:

" Well-defined, vivid, visual hallucinations. In DLB's early stage,

the person may even acknowledge and describe the hallucinations.

Other types of hallucinations are less common but sometimes occur.

These might be auditory ( " hearing " sounds), olfactory ( " tasting "

something) or tactile ( " feeling " something that isn't there). "

http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=570

And we've had recent talk about loss of smell in LBD:

Anosmia in dementia is associated with Lewy bodies rather than

Alzheimer's pathology.

OBJECTIVES: To assess olfactory function of patients with dementia.

Odour detection ability is impaired in clinical Parkinson's disease.

Evidence of impaired detection in patients with clinically diagnosed

Alzheimer's disease is inconsistent. No studies of olfaction have

been neuropathologically validated. METHODS: The olfactory function

of 92 patients with dementia and 94 controls was assessed using a

simple bedside test as part of the Oxford Project To Investigate

Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA). Neuropathological assessment was made of

cortical Lewy bodies and substantia nigra (SN) cell counts and of

Alzheimer's disease in all 92 patients, 22 of whom had SN Lewy bodies

and 43 of whom had only Alzheimer's disease. RESULTS: Patients with

Lewy bodies were more likely to be anosmic than those with

Alzheimer's disease or controls. Patients with Alzheimer's disease

were not more likely to be anosmic than controls. Nor was anosmia

associated with degree of neurofibrillary tangles, as assessed by

Braak stage. Among subjects with Lewy bodies, overall cortical Lewy

body scores and Lewy body density in the cingulate were higher in

those who were anosmic. Consensus clinical criteria for dementia with

Lewy bodies had a sensitivity of 64% and specificity of 89%. In the

absence of definite Alzheimer's disease, the criteria had sensitivity

of 100%. In patients with definite Alzheimer's disease, anosmia was

slightly more sensitive (55%) than the consensus criteria (33%).

However, the addition of anosmia to the consensus criteria did not

improve their overall performance. CONCLUSION: Dementia with Lewy

bodies is associated with impaired odour detection. Misdiagnosis may

have accounted for some previous reports of impaired odour detection

in Alzheimer's disease. Simple but more sensitive tests of anosmia

are required if they are to be clinically useful in identifying

patients with dementia with Lewy bodies.

Alpha-synuclein pathology in the olfactory pathways of dementia

patients

Lewy-type pathology is a characteristic of a number of

neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's disease and

dementia with Lewy bodies. Thus far, the definitive diagnosis of

these dementias can only be confirmed at post-mortem. However, it is

known that the loss of smell (anosmia) is an early symptom in

patients who develop dementia, and the use of the smell test has been

proposed as an early diagnostic procedure. The aim of this study was

to understand further the extent of Lewy pathology in the olfactory

system of patients with neurodegenerative disorders. Post-mortem

tissue from 250 subjects was obtained from the OPTIMA brain bank.

Five areas of the olfactory pathway were examined by immunolabelling

for alpha-synuclein – a major component of Lewy pathology: the

olfactory tract/bulb (n = 79), the anterior olfactory nucleus in the

lateral olfactory gyrus (n = 193), the region of olfactory projection

to the orbito-frontal cortex (n = 225), the hippocampus (n = 236) and

the amygdala (n = 201). Results show that Lewy pathology affects

different parts of the olfactory pathways differentially, suggesting

a specific pattern of development of pathology. Clinical Parkinson's

disease is most likely to be identified if the orbito-frontal cortex

is affected, while the diagnosis is less likely if the pathology is

restricted to the olfactory bulb or tract. These results suggest that

pathology in the olfactory bulb and tract occurs prior to clinical

signs of Parkinson's disease. Furthermore, the results presented here

provide further evidence supporting the possible value of a smell

test to aid the clinical diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.

----------

But I suppose it could happen. Here's what it's called, Phantosmia:

http://personal.ecu.edu/wuenschk/Parosmia.htm

Or maybe it's a side effect to a med your taking ??

> > >

> > > <snip> I would love a good chart with brain and behaviors

> identified.

> > > Then as the behaviors happened, we would know what other

> behaviors

> > are

> > > related, or if we are dealing in another patch of brain. <snip>

> > >

> > > I would love that too. Maybe could help with this (hint,

> > hint)

> > > This idea should be something that LBDA does on their website.

Or

> > even

> > > Lewy Body Society in the UK. I'll pose the thought to them and

> see

> > what

> > > comes of it. I think it would be VERY useful. I like visuals

and

> this

> > > would be something I bet people would refer to a lot. Great

idea!

> > >

> > >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

I smell things other's don't, too, as part of a migraine. One of the

parts of my aura is I usually smell things - mostly unpleasant, like

Windex and smoke for a few minutes.

The problem with trying to link brain region to function is that so

much of DLB is driven by the acetylcholinergic and dopaminergic

" projections " - it's not so much LB pathology in a brain functional

area that causes problems so much as the lack of neurotransmitters -

this is why DLB patients usually are more impaired than the gross

level of atrophy visible in their MRI would indicate.

[Guest guest]

Thank you for all the information .. but I am having difficult time

with understanding things these days with big terms. I have college

and university education and used to understand everything and was

able to research things to no end but now it's just hard to

understand lots of things.

Does an MRI show LBD in early stages?

Diane

[Guest guest]

's post also answered my question re: an image of a brain showing

what parts of the brain relates to behaviors... A visual thing for us

to understand -- and basically he was saying that it wouldn't help b/c

the issues are with the connectors between the different parts of the

brain and not so much an issue of the areas of the brain itself..(right

? )

But that's the problem w/ how difficult it is to diagnose LBD b/c the

MRI doesn't really show the doctors anything. How most LOs are

diagnosed is by process of elimination. Doctors usually can diagnose

Alz. accurately 80-90% of the time. And b/c they kept telling us that

my mother didn't have Alz. we knew she had something, but not Alz. With

my mom the diagnosis came due to a brain biopsy when she was being

tested to see if she had a treatable form of dementia (cerebral

vasculitis) -- and upon conclusion she didn't have that form of

dementia but they found lewy bodies in the biopsy.

[Guest guest]

Typical MRI cannot reliably distinguish DLB from AD and other

pathologies; that said, brain MRI of DLB patients usually doesn't

look so bad - the brain looks age-appropriate. AD brains tend to look

" shriveled " or " shrunken " , due to the generalized brain cell death.

[Guest guest]

Of course headaches are hereditary! I get them from my mother!

[Guest guest]

my Dad also smells and see things that are not there! too bad he is paranoid

and the things he smells are like fires and he sees people trying to kill him.

Its so so sad

--

Have a great day!!

-------------- Original message ----------------------

> Mom smells things that aren't there, hears things that aren't there, and

> sees people who aren't there. I did see smell listed in some of the LBD

> literature (olfactory hallucinations).

>

> gladys

>

>

[Guest guest]

i smell things that no one does like fire to. glad i don't see

someone killing me. just when i go to dentist i think he's poisoning

me. don't know why i go. but i really do go to the dentist cuz my mom

takes me.

>

> my Dad also smells and see things that are not there! too bad he

is paranoid and the things he smells are like fires and he sees

people trying to kill him. Its so so sad

>

> --

> Have a great day!!

>

> -------------- Original message ----------------------

>

> > Mom smells things that aren't there, hears things that aren't

there, and

> > sees people who aren't there. I did see smell listed in some of

the LBD

> > literature (olfactory hallucinations).

> >

> > gladys

> >

> >

>