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. 2020 Jun 20:bjaa041. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjaa041

More than smell – COVID-19 is associated with severe impairment of smell, taste, and chemesthesis

Valentina Parma 1, Kathrin Ohla 2, Maria G Veldhuizen 3, Masha Y Niv 4, Christine E Kelly 5, Alyssa J Bakke 6, Keiland W Cooper 7, Cédric Bouysset 8, Nicola Pirastu 9, Michele Dibattista 10, Rishemjit Kaur 11, Marco Tullio Liuzza 12, Marta Y Pepino 13, Veronika Schöpf 14, Veronica Pereda-Loth 15, Shannon B Olsson 16, Richard C Gerkin 17, Paloma Rohlfs Domínguez 18, Javier Albayay 19, Michael C Farruggia 20, Surabhi Bhutani 21, Alexander W Fjaeldstad 22, Ritesh Kumar 23, Anna Menini 24, Moustafa Bensafi 25, Mari Sandell 26, Iordanis Konstantinidis 27, Antonella Di Pizio 28, Federica Genovese 29, Lina Öztürk 30, Thierry Thomas-Danguin 31, Johannes Frasnelli 32, Sanne Boesveldt 33, Özlem Saatci 34, Luis R Saraiva 35, Cailu Lin 29, Jérôme Golebiowski 35, Liang- Dar Hwang 37, Mehmet Hakan Ozdener 29, Maria Dolors Guàrdia 38, Christophe Laudamiel 39, Marina Ritchie 40, Jan Havlícek 41, Denis Pierron 42, Eugeni Roura 42, Marta Navarro 43, Alissa A Nolden 44, Juyun Lim 45, K L Whitcroft 46, Lauren R Colquitt 29, Camille Ferdenzi 47, Evelyn V Brindha 48, Aytug Altundag 49, Alberto Macchi 50, Alexia Nunez-Parra 51, Zara M Patel 52, Sébastien Fiorucci 36, Carl M Philpott 53, Barry C Smith 54, Johan N Lundström 55, Carla Mucignat 56, Jane K Parker 57, Mirjam van den Brink 58, Michael Schmuker 59, Florian Ph S Fischmeister 60, Thomas Heinbockel 61, Vonnie D C Shields 62, Farhoud Faraji 63, Enrique Santamaría 64, William E A Fredborg 65, Gabriella Morini 66, Jonas K Olofsson 65, Maryam Jalessi 67, Noam Karni 68, Anna D’Errico 69, Rafieh Alizadeh 70, Robert Pellegrino 71, Pablo Meyer 72, Caroline Huart 73, Ben Chen 74, Graciela M Soler 75, Mohammed K Alwashahi 76, Antje Welge-Lüssen 78, Jessica Freiherr 79, Jasper H B de Groot 81, Hadar Klein 4, Masako Okamoto 84, Preet Bano Singh 86, Julien W Hsieh 108, Danielle R Reed 29, Thomas Hummel 109, Steven D Munger 106,110, John E Hayes 6,; GCCR Group Author
PMCID: PMC7337664  PMID: 32564071

Abstract

Recent anecdotal and scientific reports have provided evidence of a link between COVID-19 and chemosensory impairments such as anosmia. However, these reports have downplayed or failed to distinguish potential effects on taste, ignored chemesthesis, and generally lacked quantitative measurements. Here, we report the development, implementation and initial results of a multi-lingual, international questionnaire to assess self-reported quantity and quality of perception in three distinct chemosensory modalities (smell, taste, and chemesthesis) before and during COVID-19. In the first 11 days after questionnaire launch, 4039 participants (2913 women, 1118 men, 8 other, ages 19-79) reported a COVID-19 diagnosis either via laboratory tests or clinical assessment. Importantly, smell, taste and chemesthetic function were each significantly reduced compared to their status before the disease. Difference scores (maximum possible change ±100) revealed a mean reduction of smell (-79.7 ± 28.7, mean ± SD), taste (-69.0 ± 32.6), and chemesthetic (-37.3 ± 36.2) function during COVID-19. Qualitative changes in olfactory ability (parosmia and phantosmia) were relatively rare and correlated with smell loss. Importantly, perceived nasal obstruction did not account for smell loss. Furthermore, chemosensory impairments were similar between participants in the laboratory test and clinical assessment groups. These results show that COVID-19-associated chemosensory impairment is not limited to smell, but also affects taste and chemesthesis. The multimodal impact of COVID-19 and lack of perceived nasal obstruction suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection may disrupt sensory-neural mechanisms.


Articles from Chemical Senses are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

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