• The Laryngoscope · Nov 2020

    COVID-19 Viral Load in the Severity of and Recovery From Olfactory and Gustatory Dysfunction.

    • Ryan H W Cho, Zion W H To, Zenon W C Yeung, Eugene Y K Tso, FungKitty S CKSCDepartment of Pathology, United Christian Hospital, Hong Kong., Sandy K Y Chau, Erica Y L Leung, Thomas S C Hui, Steven W C Tsang, K N Kung, ChowEudora Y DEYDDepartment of Pathology, United Christian Hospital, Hong Kong., Victor Abdullah, Andrew van Hasselt, TongMichael C FMCFDepartment of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong., and Peter K M Ku.
    • Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, United Christian Hospital and Tseung Kwan O Hospital, Hong Kong.
    • Laryngoscope. 2020 Nov 1; 130 (11): 2680-2685.

    Objectives/HypothesisThis study investigated olfactory and gustatory dysfunction in the 2020 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, and their correlations with viral load evaluation.Study DesignProspective cross-sectional cohort study.MethodsOne hundred forty-three symptomatic patients being screened for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were invited to participate. The clinical data of 83 confirmed COVID-19 subjects were collected, with 60 patients who were symptomatic but negative for COVID-19 recruited as controls. The prevalence and severity of and recovery time for olfactory and gustatory dysfunction, and cycle threshold (Ct) values from a SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction assay of nasopharyngeal and deep throat swabs were collected. Their correlations with Ct values were reported.ResultsThirty-nine (47.0%) and 36 (43.4%) COVID-19 patients reported olfactory and gustatory dysfunction, respectively. The results of one-way analysis of variance did not show statistically significant relationships between the Ct values and severity of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction (P = .780 and P = .121, respectively). Among the COVID-19 patients who reported smell and taste loss, 28/39 (71.8%) and 30/36 (83.3%) experienced complete recovery, respectively. The mean recovery time was 10.3 ± 8.1 days for olfactory dysfunction and 9.5 ± 6.8 days for gustatory dysfunction. The recovery time was not correlated with the Ct values (Pearson correlation coefficient, smell: -0.008, P = .968; taste: -0.015, P = .940).ConclusionsThere is a high prevalence of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction in COVID-19. However, the severity of and recovery from these symptoms have no correlations with the viral load of SARS-CoV-2.Level Of Evidence4 Laryngoscope, 130:2680-2685, 2020.© 2020 American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society Inc, "The Triological Society" and American Laryngological Association (ALA).

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…