Patients with past PCR-confirmed COVID-19 infection and persistent olfactory/gustatory complaints were investigated. Olfactory threshold and identification, gustatory detection, identification, and magnitude scaling were tested.
A total of 42 PCI subjects were compared to 41 age- and gender-matched controls with no COVID-19 history. All PCI tested had mild COVID-19 disease. Mean interval between COVID-19 confirmations to testing was 7.4 ± 3.1 months. PCI subjects complained of combined dysfunction in 85.7%, isolated olfactory or gustatory dysfunction in 7.1% each. Combined complaints were significantly higher in PCI (p < 0.001). Objective testing showed significantly higher prevalence of dysfunction in PCI versus controls for hyposmia (73.8%, 12.2%), anosmia (11.9%, 0%), odor identification (68.5%, 83.0%), hypogeusia (23% and 2.4%, respectively), and impaired magnitude scaling, (p < 0.05). All PCI subjects with hypogeusia had abnormal gustatory magnitude scaling.
While most PCI subjects complained of combined gustatory and olfactory dysfunction, objective testing showed in the majority an isolated single sense dysfunction, with a low level of agreement between subjective and objective findings. Abnormal objective results for all olfactory and gustatory functions tested may suggest a central rather than peripheral mechanism, although concomitant mechanisms cannot be excluded.
方法:对既往PCR确诊的COVID-19感染和持续性嗅觉/味觉主诉的患者进行调查。嗅觉阈值和识别,味觉检测,测试了识别和震级缩放。
结果:将42名PCI受试者与41名年龄和性别相匹配的无COVID-19病史的对照进行比较。所有接受PCI测试的患者均患有轻度COVID-19疾病。COVID-19确认与测试之间的平均间隔为7.4±3.1个月。85.7%的PCI患者抱怨合并功能障碍,孤立的嗅觉或味觉功能障碍各7.1%。PCI患者的综合投诉明显高于PCI(P<0.001)。客观测试表明,PCI中功能障碍的患病率明显高于对照组(73.8%,12.2%),嗅觉缺失(11.9%,0%),气味识别(68.5%,83.0%),伪善(23%,分别为2.4%),和受损的震级缩放,(p<0.05)。所有患有低尿的PCI受试者都有异常的味觉大小缩放。
结论:虽然大多数PCI受试者主诉味觉和嗅觉功能障碍,客观测试表明,在大多数孤立的单感功能障碍,主观和客观结果之间的一致性较低。所有嗅觉和味觉功能的异常客观结果可能提示中枢而非外周机制。虽然不能排除伴随机制。