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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Taste Exam: A Brief and Validated Test
Published on: August 17, 2018
Taste and smell as chemosensory dysfunctions in COVID-19 infection
Pier Carmine Passarelli1, Michele Antonio Lopez2, Giuseppe Niccolò Mastandrea Bonaviri3
1Department of Head and Neck, Division of Oral Surgery and Implantology, Institute of Clinical Dentistry, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Gemelli Foundation for the University Policlinic, Rome, Italy, piercarmine.passarelli@unicatt.it.
Purpose:
To review the literature on the presence of two clinical manifestations in patients presenting COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) infection: loss of taste (ageusia) and loss of smell (anosmia).
Methods:
PubMed and EMBASE were searched and studies were selected starting from November, 2019 until April 2020; also, the references of the selected articles were evaluated for methodological quality.
Results:
Of the 19 studies analyzed, five were included to evaluate the presence of ageusia and/or anosmia as symptoms in patients who were tested and resulted positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In a total of 10,818 patients, 8,823 presented ageusia (81.6%; range 5.6%-88%) and 8,088 presented anosmia (74.8%; range 5.1-85.6%). Only one study recorded both symptoms with a percentage of 18.6%.
Clinical Significance:
This systematic review demonstrated significant presence of ageusia and anosmia in the patients with COVID-19 infection. These symptoms may be considered as the first manifestation of the infection.
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