Table 1.

Characteristics and results of COVID-19 patients

		All	With anosmiaa	With hyposmia	With normosmia
All (n, %, 95%CI)		45	18 (40%; 25–55%)	20 (44%, 29–60%)	7 (15%, 5–25%)
Sex (n)	Female	20	8	8	4
	Male	25	10	12	3
Age (median ± STD)	Years	56 ± 16.9	56.5 ± 17.9	58 ± 17.5	49 ± 10.2
Symptoms (n, %)	Temp ≥ 38.5°C	35 (78%)	12 (34%)	16 (46%)	7 (20%)
	Cough	28 (62%)	14 (50%)	10 (36%)	4 (14%)
	Headache	10 (22%)	6 (60%)	4 (40%)	0
	Shortness of Breath	20 (44%)	13 (65%)	5 (25%)	2 (10%)
Laboratory values (mean ± STD)b	Leukocytes (Ths/μL]	5.6 ± 2.8	6.3 ± 3.3	5.5 ± 1.9	4.3 ± 3.8
	Lymphocytes (Ths/μL)	1.1 ± 0.7	0.8 ± 0.6	1.1 ± 0.8	1.4 ± 0.8
	CRP (mg/L)	49 ± 50	60 ± 42	46 ± 49	19 ± 75
	PCT (ng/mL)	0.12 ± 1.3	0.13 ± 0.1	0.17 ± 2.0	0.1 ± 0.1
	IL6 (pg/mL)	26 ± 44	16 ± 34	27 ± 51	47 ± 44
	LDH (U/L)	284 ± 181	294 ± 258	271 ± 148	249 ± 75
Sniffin test (median)	Correctly identified odoursc	8	3	9	11
Report of impaired smelling (n, %, 95CI)d	yes	22 (49%)	10 (45%, 24–68%)	10 (45%, 24–68%)	2 (10%, 1–29%)
	no	23 (51%)	8 (34%, 16–57%)	10 (43%, 23–65%)	5 (21%, 7–43%)
Time course (days; median ± STD)	First symptom to first positive PCR result	2 ± 4.2	2 ± 4.1	1.5 ± 3.7	2 ± 4
	First symptom to reported impaired smelling	5 ± 3.04	6.5 ± 3	2.5 ± 2.7	5.5 ± 2.5
	First symptoms to Sniffin test	10 ± 5.1	11 ± 4	8.5 ± 4.5	12 ± 7.5
	First positive PCR result to Sniffin test	4 ± 4.6	3.5 ± 3.9	4 ± 4.4	5 ± 6.3

COVID-19 patients diagnosed with Sniffin’ sticks as normosmic, hyposmic or anosmic (correctly identifying 11–12, 7–10, and 0–6 odours of Sniffin’ sticks, respectively) are shown. STD, standard deviation; 95%CI, 95% confidence interval; PCR, polymerase chain reaction.

^ap < 0.001, χ² test with null hypothesis that anosmia in COVID-19 is the same as in controls.

^b±2 days from the day of testing, n = 33–41.

^cLinear regression analysis adjusted for age and sex shows that COVID-19 patients on average smell four fewer sticks than uninfected controls.

^dAt the day of testing.