Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2020 Aug;50(5):436-439.
doi: 10.1016/j.medmal.2020.04.006. Epub 2020 Apr 17.

Features of anosmia in COVID-19

T Klopfenstein  1 , N J Kadiane-Oussou  2 , L Toko  2 , P-Y Royer  2 , Q Lepiller  3 , V Gendrin  2 , S Zayet  4
Affiliations
Observational Study

Features of anosmia in COVID-19

T Klopfenstein et al. Med Mal Infect. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Medical publications about anosmia with COVID-19 are scarce. We aimed to describe the prevalence and features of anosmia in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: We retrospectively included COVID-19 patients with anosmia between March 1st and March 17th, 2020. We used SARS-CoV-2 real time PCR in respiratory samples to confirm the cases.

Results: Fifty-four of 114 patients (47%) with confirmed COVID-19 reported anosmia. Mean age of the 54 patients was 47 (±16) years; 67% were females and 37% were hospitalised. The median Charlson comorbidity index was 0.70 (±1.6 [0-7]). Forty-six patients (85%) had dysgeusia and 28% presented with pneumonia. Anosmia began 4.4 (±1.9 [1-8]) days after infection onset. The mean duration of anosmia was 8.9 (±6.3 [1-21]) days and 98% of patients recovered within 28 days.

Conclusions: Anosmia was present in half of our European COVID-19 patients and was often associated with dysgeusia.

Keywords: Anosmia; COVID-19; Dysgeusia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Recovery time for patients with anosmia (n = 43 patients, 10 patients did not remember duration until recovery and one patient did not recover after 28 days). Durée de l'anosmie (n=43, 10 patients ne se rappelaient pas de la durée et 1 patient était toujours anosmique à J28).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wu Z., McGoogan J.M. Characteristics of and important lessons from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: summary of a report of 72,314 cases from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. JAMA. 2020 [cited 2020 Mar 23; available from: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762130] - PubMed
    1. Wang D., Hu B., Hu C., Zhu F., Liu X., Zhang J., et al. Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalised patients with 2019 novel Coronavirus-infected pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA. 2020 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Huang C., Wang Y., Li X., Ren L., Zhao J., Hu Y., et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020;395:497–506. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang Z, Yang B, Li Q, Wen L, Zhang R. Clinical features of 69 cases with Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Wuhan, China. Clin Infect Dis, 2020 [Internet]. [cited 2020 Mar 22]; Available from: https://academic.oup.com/cid/advancearticle/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa272/5807944 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu J, Liu J, Zhao X, Liu C, Wang W, Wang D, et al. Clinical Characteristics of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Jiangsu Province: A Multicenter Descriptive Study. Clin Infect Dis, 2020 [Internet]. [cited 2020 Mar 22]; Available from: https://academic.oup.com/cid/advancearticle/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa199/5766408 - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms