Abstract
We attempted to establish whether test disorders occur more frequency in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) than in healthy controls and whether the presence of Candida albicans (C. albicans) on the tongue is a cause of such taste disorders. Taste disorders and their severity were assessed by filter-paper methods. DM patients demonstrated significantly higher incidences of taste disorders than healthy controls, but there was no relationship between carriers of C. albicans of the tongue and taste disorders. We also demonstrated a relationship between the taste disorders and DM controls (HbA1c). There was no correlation with HbA1c, but the taste disorders tended to occur in the DM patients who had nerve complications. The results suggested the taste disorder test using these filter-paper methods contributes to easy detection of the nerve complications in DM patients.
