Clinical Luncheon Speaker, ISOT 2008:  Dr. G. Webster Ross

 

Can Olfaction Testing Identify Early Parkinson's Disease?

 

The ISOT 2008 Clinical Luncheon features  Dr. G. Webster Ross, of the Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Health Care System, University of Hawaii John A Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, HI, who will present his ground breaking translational research investigating the ability of olfactory testing to identify early Parkinson's Disease in a community -based sample.  Though it has been known that impaired olfaction occurs in 90% of persons with Parkinson's Disease, a neurodegenerative brain disease, population studies have been lacking.  Post mortem studies indicate that the olfactory bulb is one of the earliest areas to be involved with the neuropathological process underlying Parkinson's disease.  This process begins years before a diagnosis can be made.  Dr. Ross' new longitudinal data suggest that poor performance on olfactory testing may occur several years before diagnosis.  Sensitivity and specificity of olfactory testing in Parkinson's disease will be discussed with a view to future research combining olfactory testing and screening for other features of Parkinson's disease to identify individuals prior to the onset of classic motor features.  Please join us for this special event!

 

This talk is co-sponsored by the Ernest Polak Foundation which is providing funds to support student  attendance and a conference grant from the National Institute on Aging to Wen Chen and Claire Murphy to support presentation of chemosensory aging research in the ISOT 2008 meeting.  A limited number of complimentary tickets to participate in the Clinical Luncheon are available on a first come, first serve basis for students who are first authors on abstracts . Please contact the Executive Office at 952-646-2035 or info@achems.org to request complimentary students tickets.