SARS‐CoV‐2 Effects on Psychophysical Olfactory Scores: Prospective Study With Evaluation Before and 60‐Days After Infection.

The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the olfactory function in a series of individuals infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 and who had undergone psychophysical olfactory assessment prior to infection. Individuals unexposed to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection underwent a psychophysical evaluation of smell with the Sniffin' Sticks test. The subjects were followed prospectively and included in the study if they developed SARS‐CoV‐2 infection with a second test 60 days after recovery. At the 60‐day follow‐up of the 41 included subjects, 2 (4.9%) self‐reported persistent olfactory dysfunction (OD). The differences between TDI scores before and after infection were statistically significant (37 [interquartile range (IQR), 34.25‐39.25] vs 34.75 [IQR, 32.25‐38]; p =.021). Analyzing the individual olfactory domains, the differences were significant for threshold (T) (9.75 [IQR, 9‐11.25] vs 8.25 [IQR, 7.25‐10.25]; p =.009) but not for odor discrimination (D) (p =.443) and identification (I) (p =.159). SARS‐CoV‐2 causes a significant reduction in the olfactory function, in particular affecting the olfactory threshold, even in subjects who do not self‐report an OD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]