Magnetic resonance imaging findings in COVID-19-related anosmia

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mostly manifests with fever, shortness of breath, and cough, has also been found to cause some neurological symptoms, such as anosmia and ageusia. The aim of the study was to present the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings of patients with anosmia-hyposmia symptoms and to discuss potential mechanisms in light of these findings.

Of the 2412 patients diagnosed with COVID-19-related pneumonia (RT-PCR at least once + clinically confirmed) between March and December 2020, 15 patients underwent olfactory MRI to investigate the cause of ongoing anosmia/ hyposmia symptoms were included in the study.

Eleven (73.3%) patients were female and four (26.7%) were male. A total of eight patients (53.3%) showed thickening in the olfactory cleft region, where the olfactory epithelium is located. In nine patients (60%), enhancement was observed in the olfactory cleft region. Diffusion-weighted imaging showed restricted diffusion in three patients (20%) (corpus callosum splenium in one patient, thalamus mediodorsal nucleus in one patient, and mesencephalon in one patient).

This study revealed that there is a relationship between anosmia and MRI findings. Larger studies can enlighten the pathophysiological mechanism and shed light on both diagnosis and new treatments.