Olfactory Disturbances as Presenting Manifestation Among Egyptian Patients with COVID-19: Possible Role of Zinc

Abdelmaksoud, Aida A.; Ghweil, Ali A.; Hassan, Mohammed H.; Rashad, Alaa; Khodeary, Ashraf; Aref, Zaki F.; Sayed, Mennatallah Ali Abdelrhman; Elsamman, Mahmoud Kamal; Bazeed, Shamardan Ezzeldin S.

doi:10.1007/s12011-020-02546-5

Cited by 46 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Two trials used SAS software [33,40], two referred to computer-generated random locks [37,38], one used random number table [34], and one used REDCap database [36] for setting the random variable seeds. The other six trials [31,32,35,39,41,42] had an unclear risk for randomization allocation due to a lack of detailed information. Three trials [32,36,40] had a high-risk bias of allocation concealment, and the other nine [31,33e35,37e39,41,42] had unclear allocation concealment without description in enough detail.…”

Section: Evaluation Of Methodological Quality and Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ten trials [31,32,34,35,37e42] had a low risk of bias with complete outcome data, except one trial [36] had a high risk of bias due to insufficient data of dropping patients, and the other one [33] without detailed safety monitoring information. Eight trials [32e34,36e38,40,42] had a low risk of bias due to their registration online with available pre-specified outcomes, whereas the other four [31,35,39,41] had a high risk of bias without pre-specified outcomes had been reported. One RCT [38] was estimated at low risk because of its good study design.…”

Section: Evaluation Of Methodological Quality and Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Four of them are multicenter RCTS [36,38,40,42]. Included studies were conducted in five different countries, including 6 RCTs [31e34, 39,40] from China, two [35,37] from Iran, two [41,42] from Egypt, and one from the USA [36] and Brazil [38] each. Eight RCTs [32e34,36e38, 40,42] were registered on the clinical trial registry website, four [34,36,38,42] registered on the Clinical Trials.gov, three [32,33,40] registered on the China Clinical Trial Registry website, and one [37] registered on the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials.…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two trials involved both suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases [16], and the other one [34] and nine [32,35e42] suspected or confirmed cases only. Eight articles [31e35, 37,39,40] were about herbal supplements, two about Zinc therapy [41,42], one with both zinc and ascorbic acid supplement [36], and one for Vitamin D 3 [38]. Except for one study with outpatients [36], the other eleven involved hospitalized participants [31e35,37e42].…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Five studies [34,36,38,41,42] reported follow-up observations, three studies [36,37,42] with a 28-day follow-up, one study with 41-day follow-up [38], and one study [32] until complete recovery of COVID-19 patients and complete recovery of their olfactory function [41](Tables 1 and 2).…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dietary supplements and herbal medicine for COVID-19: A systematic review of randomized control trials

Feng

Yang

et al. 2021

Clinical Nutrition ESPEN

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Background The world is currently struggling with the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Dietary supplements (DSs) and herbal medicine provide a potentially convenient and accessible method for its recovery, but direct evidence is limited. Objective This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of DSs and herbs in patients with COVID-19. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted in multiple electronic English and Chinese databases. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving DSs or herbal medicine interventions on patients with COVID-19 from November 2019 to February 2021 were included. Data was extracted, summarized and critically examined. Results Out of 9402 records identified in the initial search, twelve RCTs were included in this review. Risk of bias of these RCTs was deemed high. Most of the trials were of low methodologic quality. Nine studies showed herbal supplements were beneficial to the recovery of COVID-19 patients; zinc sulfate could shorten the duration of loss of smell but not total recovery from COVID-19. No severe adverse events were reported. Conclusion Herbal supplements may help patients with COVID-19, zinc sulfate is likely to shorten the duration of olfactory dysfunction. DS therapy and herbal medicine appear to be safe and effective adjuvant therapies for patients with COVID-19. These results must be interpreted with caution due to the overall low quality of the included trials. More well-designed RCTs are needed in the future.

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