Ketone Compounds, Ability To Smell

Clinical Features

The anecdotal reports among physicians that some practitioners were unable to smell acetone on the breath of patients suffering from ketosis prompted Forrai et al. (1970) to study the olfactory thresholds for detecting the odor of acetone and methylethylketone (MEK). Forrai et al. (1970) tested the ability to smell acetone and MEK among 187 students, 105 males and 82 females. The distribution of thresholds gave a bimodal curve for acetone and a trimodal curve for MEK and did not show any significant difference between the sexes. Forrai et al. (1970) suggested that a polymorphism underlies the variance in the ability to smell acetone and MEK.

Forrai et al. (1981) studied the ability to smell ketone compounds in 61 same sex dizygotic twin pairs and 87 monozygotic twin pairs in Hungary. A highly significant correlation was found between the ability to smell acetone and MEK.