Psychophysical Olfactory Tests and Detection of COVID-19 in Patients With Sudden Onset Olfactory Dysfunction: A Prospective Study

Jér̂ome René Lechien (1, 2, 3) , Pierre Cabaraux (4) , Carlos Miguel Chiesa-Estomba (5) , Mohamad Khalife , Jan Plzak (6) , Stéphane Hans (1) , Delphine Martiny (7) , Christian E. Calvo-Henriquez (8) , Maria Rosaria Barillari (9) , Claire Hopkins (10) , Sven Saussez (2, 3)

1 UVSQ Santé - Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines - UFR Sciences de la santé Simone Veil
2 UMONS - University of Mons [Belgium]
3 ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles
4 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Charleroi
5 HUD - Hospital Universitario Donostia [San Sebastian, Spain]
6 University Hospital Motol [Prague]
7 UMons - Université de Mons
8 CHUS - Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela [Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, Espagne]
9 University of Naples SUN
10 Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Objective: To investigate the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) status of patients with initial sudden olfactory anosmia (ISOA) through nasopharyngeal swabs for reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis and to explore their olfactory dysfunctions with psychophysical olfactory evaluation. Methods: A total of 78 ISOA patients were recruited from April 6, 2020, to April 10, 2020, through a public call of University of Mons (Mons, Belgium). Patients benefited from nasopharyngeal swabs and fulfilled the patient-reported outcome questionnaire. Among them, 46 patients performed psychophysical olfactory evaluation using olfactory identification testing. Based on the duration of the ISOA, 2 groups of patients were compared: patients with olfactory dysfunction duration ≤12 days (group 1) and those with duration >12 days (group 2). Results: In group 1, 42 patients (87.5%) had a positive viral load determined by RT-PCR and 6 patients (12.5%) were negative. In group 2, 7 patients (23%) had a positive viral load and 23 patients (77%) were negative. The psychophysical olfactory evaluation reported that anosmia and hyposmia occurred in 24 (52%) and 11 (24%) patients, respectively. Eleven patients were normosmic. The viral load was significantly higher in patients of group 1 compared with those of group 2. Conclusions: Coronavirus disease 2019 was detected in a high proportion of ISOA patients, especially over the first 12 days of olfactory dysfunction. Anosmia is an important symptom to consider in the detection of COVID-19 infection.

Mots clés: anosmia; COVID-19; olfactory dysfunction; psychophysical olfactory evaluation; RT-PCR

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Jér̂ome René Lechien, Pierre Cabaraux, Carlos Miguel Chiesa-Estomba, Mohamad Khalife, Jan Plzak, et al.. Psychophysical Olfactory Tests and Detection of COVID-19 in Patients With Sudden Onset Olfactory Dysfunction: A Prospective Study. Ear Nose and Throat Journal, 2020, 99 (9), pp.579-583. ⟨10.1177/0145561320929169⟩. ⟨hal-03032305⟩