Olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions in COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hoang, Minh P; Kanjanaumporn, Jesada; Aeumjaturapat, Songklot; Chusakul, Supinda; Seresirikachorn, Kachorn; Snidvongs, Kornkiat

doi:10.12932/ap-210520-0853

Cited by 27 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…The second type of respondents were completely unable to sense a smell, were only noticed in COVID-19 group. Similar to earlier reports we also observed smell deficits in nearly 50% of COVID-19 patients [10]. Fig2A is a cumulative data of % COVID-19 positive individuals who were unable to either smell or identify the odorants correctly, or both, which goes as high as 48.9 % and 22.5% for single and two odorants respectively (Fig2A).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 90%

Utility of Olfactory test as screening tool for COVID-19: A pilot study

Khare

Chander

Agrawal

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Loss of smell function (Anosmia) is reported to be associated with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. The present study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of an indigenously developed prototype smell test to identify/diagnose asymptomatic COVID-19 positive individuals. A panel of five different odorants belonging to Indian household with unique and mutually exclusive odor were used to develop prototype kit to test the hypothesis. The developed prototype kit was tested at 2 centers (N=49 and 34) with slight modifications. Simultaneously, the kit was also tested on 55 (N=35 and 20) healthy controls. Our results indicate that otherwise asymptomatic COVID-19 positive individuals were having quantifiable deficit in smell sensation. Interestingly, the variable sensitivity of different odorants was observed in different patients. None of the healthy controls reported difficulty in sensing any of the odorant, whereas, some of healthy controls did misidentify the odorants. Overall, the present study provides a preliminary data that loss in smell sensation for various odorants can be exploited as a quick and affordable screening test to identify infected cases among at risk individuals.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 90%

Utility of Olfactory test as screening tool for COVID-19: A pilot study

Khare

Chander

Agrawal

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…In total, 43.93-52.73% patients were reported to have OGA [22]. Half patients had OGA in Hoang's study [23]. Costa et al also had similar findings (56.4-60.7%) [24].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…There were some systematic reviews investigating the prevalence of OGA in patients with COVID-19 published recently [22][23][24]. In total, 43.93-52.73% patients were reported to have OGA [22].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

One-Seventh of Patients with COVID-19 Had Olfactory and Gustatory Abnormalities as Their Initial Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Chi

Chiu

Peng

et al. 2020

Life

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients exhibited protean clinical manifestations. Olfactory and gustatory abnormalities (anosmia and ageusia) were observed in COVID-19 patients, but the reported prevalence varied. In this systematic review, the prevalence of olfactory and gustatory abnormalities (OGA) was evaluated in laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients. On 8 May 2020, 14,506 articles were screened, while 12 of them were enrolled. A total of 1739 COVID-19 patients were analyzed, with a wide range of prevalence observed (5.6–94%). The pooled prevalence was 48.5% with high heterogeneity (I2, 98.8%; p < 0.0001). In total, 15.5% had OGA as their first symptom (I2, 22.6%; p = 0.27) among the patients analyzed. Contradictory to COVID-19 negative controls, patients with COVID-19 had a higher risk of OGA (odds ratio, 5.3; I2, 66.5%; p = 0.03). In conclusion, approximately half of COVID-19 patients had OGA, and one-seventh of them had OGA as their initial symptoms. OGA were cardinal symptoms of COVID-19, which may serve as clues for early diagnosis. Diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 was suggested in patients with OGA during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure timely diagnosis and appropriate quarantine.

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“…This is supported by some recent meta-analyses, such as those published by Hajikhani et al [8], as well as by Tong and colleagues [9], who reported that olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions are present in over 50% of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Notably, the recent meta-analysis of Hoang et al also revealed that olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunctions might also be highly specific symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, since they were found to be 10-fold more likely to occur in COVID-19 patients as opposed to those with other acute respiratory infections (odds ratio, 11.3; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 5.4-23.4) [10]. This would hence suggest that the onset of taste (hypogeusia or ageusia) or smell (i.e., hyposmia or anosmia) dysfunctions should raise high clinical suspicion for the potential of active SARS-CoV-2 infection, thus accelerating diagnosis, isolation and treatment (when necessary) of such patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Google Searches for Taste and Smell Loss Anticipate Covid-19 Epidemiology

Lippi

Henry

Mattiuzzi³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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BackgroundAs evidence emerged that loss of taste and/or loss of smell is frequently triggered by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, we investigated whether Google searches volume for these two disease-specific symptoms could be associated with disease epidemiology in United States (US).Materials and MethodsWe performed an electronic search in Google Trends using the keywords “taste loss” and “smell loss” within the US. The Google searches volume was correlated with the number of new weekly cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country.ResultsThe weekly Google searches for taste and smell loss exhibited a trend similar to that of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections in the US. A nearly perfect correlation was found between Google Trends scores of taste and smell loss (r=0.98; 95% CI, 0.97-0.99; p<0.001). Although a significant association was found between Google searches for the two symptoms and the concomitant number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections reported during the same week, the correlation improved over time. The highest correlation was found comparing Google Trends scores for taste or smell loss and the number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections two weeks later. The correlation coefficient of summing Google Trends scores for the two symptoms and the number of new weekly SARS-CoV-2 infections two weeks later was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.68-0.90; p<0.001), and was associated 0.89 diagnostic accuracy.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that Google searches numbers for olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions may help predicting the epidemiological trajectory of COVID-19 early before official reporting.

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Olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions in COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Cited by 27 publications

References 0 publications

Utility of Olfactory test as screening tool for COVID-19: A pilot study

Utility of Olfactory test as screening tool for COVID-19: A pilot study

One-Seventh of Patients with COVID-19 Had Olfactory and Gustatory Abnormalities as Their Initial Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Google Searches for Taste and Smell Loss Anticipate Covid-19 Epidemiology

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