Anosmia in COVID-19 Patients: Can We Predict the Severity of Chest Manifestations?

Abstract

Introduction Anosmia is one of the common symptoms of COVID-19, the link between severity of chest infection and anosmia was investigated by few studies. Objectives To find an association between anosmia and severity of chest infection. Methods An analysis of patients admitted to isolation hospital of our university with confirmed polymerase chain reaction positive testing for COVID-19, between March 2021 until September 2021. We called all patients who reported anosmia during their time of illness and asked them about anosmia. We examined their chest CT. A statistical analysis was done. Results A total of 140 patients completed the study; 65% were female and 56.4% had complete anosmia. Anosmia was significantly associated with loss of taste. Smell returned in 92.5% of anosmic patients. Duration of smell loss was ∼ 2 weeks in 40.5%. The most common symptoms associated with anosmia were running nose, sore throat, fever, and cough. Loss of smell was significantly associated with mild chest disease. 73.4% of anosmic patients had mild chest infection, 21.5% of them had moderate infection, and 5.1% had severe chest infection. Conclusion The pattern of anosmia in COVID-19 patients has some common similarities in general; the way it starts, the associated symptoms, the time until smell returns and, the most important, the severity of chest infection. As anosmia is significantly associated with mild chest infection. the presence of anosmia could be an independent predictor of good COVID-19 outcome as reflected by a lower disease severity and less frequent ICU admissions.

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Olfactory Dysfunction in Individuals with COVID-19 in Brazil: A Study of 20,669 Cases from 2020 to 2021

“…Among individuals who reported anosmia, there was a higher proportion of females, with 61.1% (n = 564) in 2020 and 61.7% (n = 1,713) in 2021. The median age did not differ significantly in the 2 years, with values of 36 years (IQR 27-46) in 2020 and 35 years (IQR [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] in 2021 (Mann-Whitney; p = 0.203) (Fig. 1b).…”

“…1b). On the other hand, individuals with olfactory disorders were younger compared to those without disorders (median age of [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] vs. 39 [IQR 29-50], respectively (Mann-Whitney; p < 0.001) (Fig. 1c).…”

“…Furthermore, patients suffering from COVID-19-related anosmia tend to exhibit significantly lower serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) than patients without anosmia, although this is controversial [ 44 ]. Lower levels of interleukin-6 are associated with a milder course of the disease [ 45 ].…”