Clinical Database
The Taste and Smell Clinic (TASC) has an extensive,
centralized database of valuable clinical information
relevant to the diagnosis and management of taste and smell
disorders and burning mouth syndrome. This database
maintains up to 2,598 variables for each of 1,800
comprehensively evaluated persons with these disorders.
Questionnaire data are also available for more than 3,000
subjects who contacted the (TASC). It is the largest
centralized database of clinical chemosensory information in
the United States of America. The Taste and Smell Clinic is
the nucleus of the Center. Patients travel to the TASC from
all over the USA, and sometimes from other countries, to be
evaluated and contribute to research. Essential data are
gathered from procedures developed by the TASC and adopted
by other chemosensory centers.
The fundamental goal of this clinical center is to advance
the understanding of the causes and potential treatments of
chemosensory disorders through provision of: (1) meticulous
and comprehensive clinical and chemosensory data to
scientific investigators; and (2) a forum for interaction
between clinical, basic science, data management, and
biostatistical experts. Chemosensory losses, phantom tastes
and smells, and burning mouth syndrome can adversely affect
mental health and nutritional status. Frequently, management
of these disorders is greatly hindered by lack of
identifiable causation, and is therefore symptom-targeted
rather than causation-targeted.
The multidisciplinary TASC
database includes information from many specialty fields in
medicine and dentistry, and is therefore uniquely positioned
to clarify the diverse conditions likely to be causative for
chemosensory disorders. The clinical scientific team,
comprised of researchers with expertise in both their
clinical fields and the chemosenses, has also been
successful in generating new therapeutic approaches to these
disorders, and in proposing means to prevent these disorders
from occurring. Proposed studies offer hope to many people
who suffer with these neglected disorders.
|
