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

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.

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.

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.

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.