Objectives: To examine the longitudinal prevalence and recovery of olfactory, gustatory, and oral chemesthetic deficits in a sizable cohort of SARS-CoV-2 infected persons using quantitative testing. To determine whether demographic and clinical factors, mainly the medications used after the COVID-19 diagnosis, influence the test measures. Methods: Prospective cohort in a hospital with primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary care. Patients with confirmed COVID-19 were tested during the acute infection phase (within 15 days of initial symptom, n = 187) and one (n = 113) and 3 months later (n = 73). The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test, the Global Gustatory Test, and a novel test for chemesthesis were administered at all visits. Results: During the acute phase, 93% were anosmic or microsmic and 29.4% were hypogeusic. No one was ageusic. A deficit in oral chemesthesis was present in 13.4%. By 3 months, taste and chemesthesis had largely recovered, however, some degree of olfactory dysfunction remained in 54.8%. Remarkably, patients who had been treated with anticoagulants tended to have more olfactory improvement. Recovery was greater in men than in women, but was unrelated to disease severity, smoking behavior, or the use of various medications prior to, or during, COVID-19 infection. Conclusions: When using quantitative testing, olfactory disturbances were found in nearly all SARS-CoV-2 infected patients during the acute infection phase. Taste or chemesthetic deficits were low. Olfactory impairment persisted to some degree in over half of the patients at the 3-month follow-up evaluation, being more common in women and less common in those who had been treated earlier with anticoagulants. Level of Evidence: 3
Introduction: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first detected in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China, and has since taken on worldwide proportions. It is known that individuals with Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) have systemic clinical manifestations. Among the multisystemic effects, cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is responsible for high mortality rates. In this sense, understanding the association between CVT and SARS-CoV-2 infection directly impacts the disease's morbidity and mortality. Methodology: Literature review in the PubMed and Embase databases, with the following search terms: “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “Venous thromboembolism”, “Thrombosis”, “Cerebral Venous Thrombosis”, “Intracranial Sinus Thrombosis” and “Cranial Sinus Thrombosis”. The selected articles were written in English, which addressed the various aspects of COVID-19. Results and discussion: CVT are a rare complication of COVID-19, with an incidence between 0.02 to 1% of hospitalized patients. However, it can reach about 75% of mortality in affected individuals. Pathophysiology seems to be associated with the state of hypercoagulability and the systemic inflammatory process resulting from viral infection. Thus, recent studies show a consensus on the early anticoagulation of patients affected by the virus, to reduce mortality in these cases. However, the differences between the types of anticoagulation, Low Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWH), Unfractionated Heparin (UFH), Dabigatran have not yet been well established, although there is a predilection for the use of LMWH. Also, thrombectomy is a therapeutic intervention option that should be evaluated, due to the risk of additional endothelial injury from the use of stent retrievers. Conclusion: Although it has a relatively low incidence, CVT aggravates the condition and increases the risk of death for patients with COVID-19. Because of this, early diagnosis and evaluation of therapeutic options for CVT are essential for the development of clinical management.
Multiple meningiomas are rare conditions that refer to the presentation of two or more meningiomas, simultaneous or not, without the association of neurofibromatosis. We report a case of a 83-year-old woman with a clinical presentation of loss of right visual acuity. After imaging exams, she was diagnosed with three meningiomas, located in the olfactory groove, left temporal-parietal convexity and parasagittal. In addition, a comprehensive review of the literature on pathophysiology, histology, risk factors, clinical presentation, and treatment of multiple meningiomas was carried out, in order to highlight the peculiarities of this condition and to associate it with our reported case. Therefore, this article made it possible to compare the characteristics presented in this patient with general aspects of the conditions reported in the literature review.
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