Overview
The goal of this prospective, cohort study is to learn about smell, taste and trigeminal dysfunction in patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). The research team hypothesizes that treatment with allo-HSCT will induce:
- Distortion of taste and smell and trigeminal functions like cooling, tingling, and burning sensations.
- Reduced saliva production leading to oral dryness and dental caries.
- Changes in the connectivity of the taste-, smell- and pain-cortical brain regions.
Description
Participants will undergo various tests:
- Smell function assessment with Sniffin' Sticks.
- Taste function assessment with Taste Strips.
- Oral trigeminal function assessment with von Frey filaments .
- Salivary assessment with the Summated Xerostomia Inventory-Dutch questionnaire.
- Salivary flow will be measured using salivary flow rate - stimulated whole saliva (SWS).
- A clinical oral examination will be done to obtain a Clinical Oral Dryness Score.
- Qualitative smell, taste and trigeminal dysfunction will be assessed using a questionnaire.
- Radiological and clinical examinations will be performed to evaluate dental and oral mucosal status.
- Quality of life using questionnaire.
- Nutritional status using questionnaire.
- Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain will be taken to capture regions-of-interest for the three different networks of interest; (i) the gustatory network reflecting changes in taste perception, (ii) the olfactory network, related to the changes in smell, and (iii) the pain matrix reflecting pain.
There will be a comparisons between the patients and healthy controls.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
• patients receiving myeloablative conditioning for a first-time allo-HSCT and diagnosed
with either a leukemia or a myelodysplastic syndrome
Exclusion Criteria:
- disorders affecting the oral cavity including poor tooth-status
- those using drugs affecting the gustatory/olfactory functions
- those with brain disorders
- those who have a chronic disorder affecting the immune system, have cancer or who are
pregnant.