ArticleJournal of otolaryngology - head & neck surgery = Le Journal d'oto-rhino-laryngologie et de chirurgie cervico-faciale2020
Do olfactory and gustatory psychophysical scores have prognostic value in COVID-19 patients? A prospective study of 106 patients.
Article in Journal of otolaryngology - head & neck surgery = Le Journal d'oto-rhino-laryngologie et de chirurgie cervico-faciale, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Taste loss as a distinct symptom of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Chemical senses · 2023Pooled it
- Prognosis and persistence of smell and taste dysfunction in patients with covid-19: meta-analysis with parametric cure modelling of recovery curves.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2022Pooled it
- The prevalence of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction in covid-19 - A systematic review.Auris, nasus, larynx · 2022Pooled it
- Prevalence and prognosis of otorhinolaryngological symptoms in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Objective assessment of long-term impact of COVID-19 on multiple sensory functions.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Expectation as a Risk for Covid-19-Related Olfactory Changes: Observations From the California Farmworkers Health Survey.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2026Article
- Prevalence and Clinical Factors Associated with Self-reported Smell and Taste Disorders in Older Adults Hospitalized with COVID-19.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2025Article
- Olfactory dysfunction in COVID-19; Self-report or olfactory dysfunction test?Caspian journal of internal medicine · 2025Review
- Olfactory Dysfunction in COVID-19 Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital; A Cross-Sectional Observational Study.Iranian journal of otorhinolaryngology · 2024Article
- Long-Term Taste and Smell Outcomes After COVID-19.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Transient loss and recovery of oral chemesthesis, taste and smell with COVID-19: A small case-control series.Physiology & behavior · 2023Article
- Neurological complications and effects of COVID-19: Symptoms and conceivable mechanisms.Brain hemorrhages · 2023Review
- SARS-Cov-2 Cycle Threshold Value and Olfactory Dysfunction in COVID-19 Patients.Iranian journal of otorhinolaryngology · 2023Article
- Transient loss and recovery of oral chemesthesis, taste and smell with COVID-19: a small case-control series.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Covid-19 affects taste independently of smell: results from a combined chemosensory home test and online survey from a global cohort (N=10,953).medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- Post-Viral Olfactory Loss: What We Learned from the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Gustatory Dysfunction: A Highly Specific and Smell-Independent Symptom of COVID-19.Indian journal of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery : official publication of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India · 2022Article
- Validity and reliability of a french version of the olfactory disorders questionnaire.Journal of otolaryngology - head & neck surgery = Le Journal d'oto-rhino-laryngologie et de chirurgie cervico-faciale · 2022Article
- Massively collaborative crowdsourced research on COVID19 and the chemical senses: Insights and outcomes.Food quality and preference · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe lack of objective data makes it difficult to establish the prognostic value of chemosensitive disorders in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. We aimed to prospectively monitor patients diagnosed with COVID-19 to see if the severity of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction associates with subsequent disease severity.
methodsMulticentre prospective study that recruited 106 COVID-19 subjects at diagnosis. Chemosensitive functions were assessed with psychophysical tests within 4 days of clinical onset, at 10 and 20 days. Daily body temperature and oxygen saturation were recorded as markers of disease severity alongside need for hospitalisation. The correlation between olfactory and gustatory scores and disease severity was assessed with linear regression analysis.
resultsAt T0, 71 patients (67%) presented with olfactory dysfunction while gustatory impairment was detected in 76 cases (65.6%). Chemosensitive disorders gradually improved over the observation period. No significant correlations were found between T0 chemosensitive scores and final disease severity. The correlation between olfactory scores and fever proved significant at T2 (p = 0.05), while the relationship with gustatory scores was significant at T1 (p = 0.01) and T2 (p < 0.001), however neither was clinically relevant. The correlation between chemosensitive scores and oxygen saturation was significant only for taste at T2 (p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis found significant correlations between olfactory impairment severity and need for hospitalization at T2 (OR 3.750, p = 0.005).
conclusionsInitial objective olfactory and gustatory scores do not seem to have a significant prognostic value in predicting the severity of the COVID-19 course; however, persistence of olfactory dysfunction at 20 days, associated with a more severe course. Unfortunately, olfactory and gustatory dysfunction do not seem to hold prognostic value at the time of initial diagnosis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.