Age-Associated Increases in Intensity Discrimination for Taste

Impaired taste sensation in the aging person may affect the appreciation of food and beverages and compromise nutritional status. Changes in flavor perception may be due to altered ability to discriminate between intensities of suprathreshold taste stimuli. An interesting question is whether all taste qualities (sweet, salty, sour, bitter) show similar age-associated decline in intensity discrimination. Taste intensity discrimination has been shown to be significantly poorer in elderly than in young women for the bitter stimulus caffeine, but not for the sweet stimulus sucrose. The present experiment investigated effects of taste substance and age on taste intensity discrimination by assessing Weber ratios (WRs) for citric acid and sodium chloride (NaCl) in 60 people, half elderly, and half women. Results indicate a significant effect of age on WRs for citric acid and NaCl, suggesting the importance of suprathreshold intensity discrimination for taste perception in the elderly.     

Congenital CMV infection: prevalence in newborns and the impact on hearing deficit

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is asymptomatic in 90% of infected newborns but approximately 10-20% of these infants are at risk of developing sequelae later, mostly hearing deficit. The aims of the study were to investigate the prevalence of congenital CMV infection in a Swedish population of newborns and investigate the relative risk of hearing deficit in newborns with congenital CMV infection. The dried blood spot (DBS) samples of 6060 newborns in southern Stockholm during 12 months (October 2003-June 2004; August 2004-October 2004) were analysed for CMV DNA by TaqMan based real-time PCR. Hearing deficit was assessed by otoacoustic emission (OAE) within a newborn screening programme. 12 infants out of 6060 or 0.2% (95% CI 0.1-0.3%) had congenital CMV infection. One boy among the 12 infected infants had unilateral hearing loss, indicating that the risk of hearing loss is greatly increased (about 20 times) in CMV infected infants. No child developed ocular complications such as chorioretinopathy during 3 y of follow-up. Congenital CMV has an impact on child health but can easily be overlooked due to lack of signs in the neonatal period. Surveillance for congenital CMV is important in addition to programmes for prevention and treatment.