PEDIATRICS Vol. 82 No. 6 December 1988, pp. 840-844
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Richman, R. A.
Right arrow Articles by Wright, H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Richman, R. A.
Right arrow Articles by Wright, H.

Olfactory Deficits in Boys With Cleft Palate

Robert A. Richman MD1, Paul R. Sheehe ScD1, Timothy McCanty MD1, Michael Vespasiano MD1, Ernest M. Post MD1, Sara Guzi BS1, and Herbert Wright PhD1

1 From the Departments of Pediatrics, Otolaryngology, and Preventive Medicine, State University of New York Health Science Center at Syracuse, Syracuse

An odor identification task was used to determine whether individuals with cleft palate (with or without cleft lip) also have an increased prevalence of olfactory deficits. Olfactory responses of 35 affected subjects (7 to 22 years of age) were compared with those of 68 subjects of comparable age without cleft palates. Subjects were requested to identify the smell of ten common household odors. They selected their responses from an alphabetized list of the test odorants. After a practice trial, the set of odorants was presented five times in randomized sequences. The percentage of correct responses increased with age for prepubertal and pubertal subjects without cleft palates. Although the olfactory scores of girls without cleft palates continued to increase after puberty, this trend was absent in boys. On the average, the girls with cleft palates had olfactory scores comparable with those of girls who did not have cleft palates, whereas affected boys averaged scores that were much lower than those of boys without cleft palates. Ten of the 20 boys with cleft palates, compared with only three of 34 boys without cleft palates, had olfactory scores less than 60% correct. There was no evidence of heterogeneity in the magnitude or direction of the relationship between any of the subtypes of cleft palate and olfactory dysfunction. In this study, cleft palate is more strongly associated with olfactory deficits in boys than in girls, suggesting the possibility that the deficit may be a sex-influenced trait.

Key Words: cleft palate • olfactory deficit • sex-influenced trait

Submitted on October 19, 1987
Accepted on December 22, 1987




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 PediatricsHome page
C. Chalouhi, P. Faulcon, C. Le Bihan, L. Hertz-Pannier, P. Bonfils, and V. Abadie
Olfactory Evaluation in Children: Application to the CHARGE Syndrome
Pediatrics, July 1, 2005; 116(1): e81 - e88.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]