Olfactory function and findings on chest computed tomography in COVID-19: is there any correlation?

Abstract

Background

Olfactory dysfunction is frequent in COVID-19 and it might occur along with pulmonary involvement. These manifestations do not seem to share pathophysiological mechanisms, but clinical data on the subject is lacking. Aims/Objectives: This study aims to correlate the olfactory function (OF) and the radiological pulmonary involvement among in-hospital patients with COVID-19.

Materials and methods

Patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 were consecutively recruited. They had their objective OF evaluated by the Alcohol Sniff Test and underwent a chest computed tomography (cCT). Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the cCT scans were performed by a blinded radiologist. The quantitative assessment included both the grade of involved parenchyma and the CT severity score (CT-SS). Data obtained were then compared.

Results

57 patients were included. There was no correlation between the OF and the grade of lung involvement (p-value: .884) or the CT-SS (Pearson’s coefficient: −.111). Yet, patients with radiological findings on the cCT typical for COVID-19 did not present significantly different OF from the remaining (p-value: .193). Conclusions: Olfactory dysfunction does not correlate with the radiological lung involvement in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

Significance

There is also clinical evidence that the olfactory disorder and the pulmonary disease in COVID-19 have distinct mechanisms.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at here.

Chinese abstract

背景：嗅觉功能障碍在COVID-19中很常见, 可能与肺部受累一起发生。这些表现似乎并没有共同的病理生理机制, 但缺乏于此有关的临床数据。

目的：本研究旨在将COVID-19住院患者的嗅觉功能（OF）与放射性肺部受累相联系起来。

材料和方法：连续招募重度COVID-19住院患者。他们通过酒精嗅觉测试评估了他们的客观OF, 并进行了胸部计算机断层扫描（cCT）。对cCT扫描的定性和定量分析是由一名盲放射科医生进行的。定量评估包括受累实质的等级和CT严重程度评分（CT-SS）。然后对所获数据进行比较。

结果：共纳入57例患者。 OF与肺部受累程度（p值：.884）或CT-SS（皮尔森系数：-.111）之间没有相关性。然而, 具有典型COVID-19的cCT放射学表现的患者与其余患者的OF没有显著差异（p值：.193）。

结论：嗅觉功能障碍与COVID-19住院患者的放射性肺受累无关。

意义：还有临床证据表明, COVID-19患者的嗅觉障碍和肺部疾病具有不同的机制。本文的补充数据可在线获得。

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• lung diseases
• olfaction disorders
• smell
• tomography
• X-ray computed

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).