Abstract

Detection and recognition thresholds for each of the 4 modalities of taste and for the vapors of pyridine, thiophene and nitrobenzene were determined in 9 patients with chromatin negative gonadal dysgenesis confirmed by clinical characteristics and laboratory examinations. For taste, median detection and recognition thresholds for salt and sweet were within normal limits but median detection and/or recognition thresholds for sour and bitter were significantly elevated above normal. For olfaction, median detection and recognitionthresholds for all vapors tested were significantly elevated above normal. Treatment with gonadal steroids sufficient to induce secondary sexual characteristics did not return either taste or smell sensitivity to normal although it did produce secondary sexual changes in each patient in whom it was used. The possibility of a genetic abnormality accounting for the olfactory abnormalities is raised since each of the mothers of the patients tested demonstrated an olfactory abnormality similar to that of their children.

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