Objective olfactory evaluation of self‐reported loss of smell in a case series of 86 COVID‐19 patients

Objective To investigate olfactory dysfunction (OD) in patients with mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) through patient‐reported outcome questionnaires and objective psychophysical testing. Methods COVID‐19 patients with self‐reported sudden‐onset OD were recruited. Epidemiological and clinica...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Head & Neck 2020-07, Vol.42 (7), p.1583-1590
Main Authors: Lechien, Jerome R., Cabaraux, Pierre, Chiesa‐Estomba, Carlos M., Khalife, Mohamad, Hans, Stéphane, Calvo‐Henriquez, Christian, Martiny, Delphine, Journe, Fabrice, Sowerby, Leigh, Saussez, Sven
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Anosmia
Betacoronavirus
Cancer
coronavirus
Coronavirus Infections - complications
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Epidemiology
evaluation
Female
Headache
Humans
Life Sciences
Male
Middle Aged
Olfaction
Olfaction Disorders - diagnosis
Olfaction Disorders - virology
olfactory
Otolaryngology‐head and Neck Surgery
Pandemics
Patient Reported Outcome Measures
Pneumonia, Viral - complications
Psychophysics
SARS-CoV-2
Self Report
smell
Special Issue
Surveys and Questionnaires
taste
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objective To investigate olfactory dysfunction (OD) in patients with mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) through patient‐reported outcome questionnaires and objective psychophysical testing. Methods COVID‐19 patients with self‐reported sudden‐onset OD were recruited. Epidemiological and clinical data were collected. Nasal complaints were evaluated with the sinonasal outcome‐22. Subjective olfactory and gustatory status was evaluated with the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Objective OD was evaluated using psychophysical tests. Results Eighty‐six patients completed the study. The most common symptoms were fatigue (72.9%), headache (60.0%), nasal obstruction (58.6%), and postnasal drip (48.6%). Total loss of smell was self‐reported by 61.4% of patients. Objective olfactory testings identified 41 anosmic (47.7%), 12 hyposmic (14.0%), and 33 normosmic (38.3%) patients. There was no correlation between the objective test results and subjective reports of nasal obstruction or postnasal drip. Conclusion A significant proportion of COVID‐19 patients reporting OD do not have OD on objective testing.
ISSN:1043-3074
1097-0347
1097-0347
DOI:10.1002/hed.26279