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
Review
. 2020 Aug;47(4):565-573.
doi: 10.1016/j.anl.2020.05.020. Epub 2020 Jun 9.

The diagnostic value of detecting sudden smell loss among asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in early stage: The possible early sign of COVID-19

Yun Jin Kang  1 , Jin Hee Cho  2 , Min Hyeong Lee  1 , Yeon Ji Kim  1 , Chan-Soon Park  3
Affiliations
Review

The diagnostic value of detecting sudden smell loss among asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in early stage: The possible early sign of COVID-19

Yun Jin Kang et al. Auris Nasus Larynx. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Importance: The newly emerged coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), is threatening the world. Olfactory or gustatory dysfunction is reported as one of the symptoms worldwide. As reported so far, different clinical features have been reported according to outbreak sites and gender; most of the patients, who complained of anosmia or hyposmia, were Europeans. We had a fast review for novel articles about COVID-19 infection and olfactory function.

Observations: Rapid reviews for COVID-19 or other viral infection and olfactory and/or gustatory dysfunctions were done in this review. Up to date, a lot of reports have shown that olfactory dysfunction is related to viral infections but no exact mechanism, clinical course, and definite treatment have been discovered, which is also same in COVID-19. In general, intranasal steroid (INS) and oral steroid for short time help improve the recovery of the olfactory function in case of olfactory dysfunction after virus infection. Considering severe respiratory complications and immunocompromised state of COVID-19, the use of steroid should be limited and cautious because we do not have enough data to support the usage of steroid to treat olfactory dysfunction in the clinical course of COVID-19.

Conclusions and relevance: In the days of pandemic COVID-19, we should keep in mind that olfactory dysfunctions, even without other upper respiratory infection or otolaryngologic symptoms, might be the early signs of COVID-19.

Keywords: Anosmia; COVID-19; Gustatory dysfunction; Hyposmia; Olfactory dysfunction; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of studies inclusion and exclusion criteria.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Lai C.C., Shih T.P., Ko W.C., Tang H.J., Hsueh P.R. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19): the epidemic and the challenges. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020;55(3) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhu N., Zhang D., Wang W., Li X., Yang B., Song J. A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(8):727–733. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Li Q., Guan X., Wu P., Wang X., Zhou L., Tong Y. Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(13):1199–1207. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu Y.C., Chen C.S., Chan Y.J. Overview of The 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV): the Pathogen of Severe Specific Contagious Pneumonia (SSCP) J Chin Med Assoc. 2020
    1. Ye Z.W., Yuan S., Yuen K.S., Fung S.Y., Chan C.P., Jin D.Y. Zoonotic origins of human coronaviruses. Int J Biol Sci. 2020;16(10):1686–1697. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances