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Comment
. 2020 Nov;81(5):816-846.
doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.07.028. Epub 2020 Jul 30.

Magnetic resonance imaging of COVID-19 anosmic patients reveals abnormalities of the olfactory bulb: Preliminary prospective study

Annaelle Chetrit  1 , Jerome R Lechien  2 , Amine Ammar  1 , Younes Chekkoury-Idrissi  3 , Lea Distinguin  3 , Marta Circiu  3 , Sven Saussez  4 , Marie-Christine Ballester  5 , Marc Vasse  6 , Najete Berradja  1 , Stephane Hans  3 , Robert Carlier  1 , Myriam Edjlali  7
Affiliations
Comment

Magnetic resonance imaging of COVID-19 anosmic patients reveals abnormalities of the olfactory bulb: Preliminary prospective study

Annaelle Chetrit et al. J Infect. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

  1. •

    COVID-19 patients with total loss of smell have more olfactory bulb abnormalities at the magnetic resonance imaging than patients without loss of smell.

  2. •

    The olfactory bulb MRI abnormalities may be objectified through a signal intensity ratio measurement that is calculated between the average signals of the olfactory bulb and the frontal white matter.

  3. •

    The loss of smell is probably due to olfactory bulb inflammation related to virus spread.

Keywords: Anosmia; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Imaging; MRI; Olfaction; Olfactory; Smell.

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Conflict of interest statement

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

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
MRI findings. Comparison of T2/FLAIR coronal views centered on the olfactory bulbs showing normal signal in a normosmic (A) and T2/FLAIR hyperintensity of the olfactory bulbs in a patient with anosmia (B). Box plot (C) of signal intensity ratio in loss of smell and in normo-osmic group, revealing a statistically higher T2/FLAIR Signal Intensity Ratio of the olfactory bulb in the loss of smell group (p<0.001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

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