Smell and Taste Disorders in COVID-19 Patients

BACKGROUND:

Preliminary observational data collected by Otorhinolaryngologist at the San Gerardo Hospital in Monza and by literature evidenced that numerous patients suffering from Sars-CoV-2 infection had smell and taste disorders. The are many data in the literature but few validated studies are available. Furthermore, it is not yet known in these patients what factors are related to the presence of olfactory and gustatory symptoms.

The aim of the study is to identify the demographic and clinical factors related to the smell and taste disorders in patients with Sars-CoV-2 infection, to evaluate the evolution of symptoms with a follow-up and to evaluate which factors influence the improvement of that symptoms.

STUDY DESIGN:

The study will include patients diagnosed with Sars-CoV-2 infection who have been hospitalized in the COVID wards of the San Gerardo Hospital in Monza and non-hospitalized patients but that get access to the "nasopharyngeal swabs" service of the hospital for the detection of the Sars-CoV-2 virus.

The study includes 3 timepoints. After acquiring informed consent, patient will be contacted on the phone and he will be asked to answer a multiple or short-answer questionnaire (T0) aimed at collecting demographic and clinical data, in particular relating to the smell and taste disorders, which will take place approximately 24 hours after running the swab. Follow-up period will follow, which will require patients to be contacted and invited by the Investigator to repeat the telephone questionnaire respectively 1 month (T1) and 3 months (T2) from the first compilation (T0).

The following information will be collected and recorded on a paper CRF:

• registry collection (date of birth, gender at birth)
• origin of the subjects: hospitalized, not hospitalized
• pathological, pharmacological history, allergies, smoking, flu vaccination
• date of onset of COVID19 symptoms
• smell and taste symptoms and temporal correlation with systemic symptoms (fever, dyspnoea, headache, rhinitis, gastrointestinal symptoms, arthralgias, skin manifestations)
• date of regression of the smell and taste symptoms

STATISCAL ANALYSIS:

A logistic regression model is used to identify what the clinical and demographic factors associated with the onset of the disease of interest are.

The composite endpoint consisting of the presence of smell and / or taste disorders vs the absence of both pathologies will be used as a variable. The secondary analyzes will concern only the subjects who have declared that they have had the disease in the study and, through a logistic or ordinal regression model, we will try to identify which factors are associated with the positive evolution of the disease at T3 compared to T0.

Inclusion criteria

• The study should include patients diagnosed of Sars-Cov-2 infection carried out at the San Gerardo Hospital of Monza:

• discharged from the COVID + wards of the San Gerardo Hospital in Monza
• not hospitalized subjected to nasopharyngeal swab for Sars-Cov-2 at the San Gerardo Hospital in Monza:
• Patients older than or equal to 18 years.
• The informed consent that will be freely granted and acquired before the start of the study.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients without ascertained diagnosis of Sars-Cov-2 infection carried out at San Gerardo Hospital in Monza;
• Patients with previous or current documented rhinosinusal pathologies, previous rhinosinusal surgery, previous cranio-facial trauma, previous neurosurgical and maxillofacial surgery interventions conditioning neurological or sensorineural deficits at the rhinosinusal level, neuropsychiatric pathologies.