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Recent Smell Loss Is the Best Predictor of COVID-19 Among Individuals With Recent Respiratory Symptoms

Richard Gerkin Kathrin Ohla Maria Veldhuizen Paule Joseph Christine Kelly Alyssa Bakke Kimberley Steele Michael Farruggia Robert Pellegrino Marta Pepino Cédric Bouysset Graciela Soler Veronica Pereda-Loth Michele Dibattista Keiland Cooper Ilja Croijmans Antonella Di Pizio Mehmet Hakan Ozdener Alexander Fjaeldstad Cailu Lin Mari Sandell Preet Singh V Evelyn Brindha Shannon Olsson Luis Saraiva Gaurav Ahuja Mohammed Alwashahi Surabhi Bhutani Anna D’errico Marco Fornazieri Jérôme Golebiowski Liang Dar Hwang Lina Öztürk Eugeni Roura Sara Spinelli Katherine Whitcroft Farhoud Faraji Florian Ph S Fischmeister Thomas Heinbockel Julien Hsieh Caroline Huart Iordanis Konstantinidis Anna Menini Gabriella Morini Jonas Olofsson Carl Philpott Denis Pierron Vonnie Shields Vera Voznessenskaya Javier Albayay Aytug Altundag Moustafa Bensafi María Adelaida Bock Orietta Calcinoni William Fredborg Christophe Laudamiel Juyun Lim Johan Lundström Alberto Macchi Pablo Meyer Shima Moein Enrique Santamaría Debarka Sengupta Paloma Rohlfs Dominguez Hüseyin Yanik Thomas Hummel John Hayes Danielle Reed Masha Niv Steven Munger Valentina Parma Sanne Boesveldt Jasper de Groot Caterina Dinnella Jessica Freiherr Tatiana Laktionova Sajidxa Marino Erminio Monteleone Alexia Nunez-Parra Olagunju Abdulrahman Marina Ritchie Thierry Thomas-Danguin Julie Walsh-Messinger Rashid Al Abri Rafieh Alizadeh Emmanuelle Bignon Elena Cantone Maria Paola Cecchini Jingguo Chen Maria Dolors Guàrdia Kara Hoover Noam Karni Marta Navarro Alissa Nolden Patricia Portillo Mazal Nicholas Rowan Atiye Sarabi-Jamab Nicholas Archer Ben Chen Elizabeth Di Valerio Emma Feeney Johannes Frasnelli Mackenzie Hannum Claire Hopkins Hadar Klein Coralie Mignot Carla Mucignat Yuping Ning Elif Ozturk Mei Peng Ozlem Saatci Elizabeth Sell Carol Yan Raul Alfaro Cinzia Cecchetto G. Coureaud 1 Riley Herriman Jeb Justice Pavan Kumar Kaushik Sachiko Koyama Jonathan Overdevest Nicola Pirastu Vicente Ramirez S Craig Roberts Barry Smith Hongyuan Cao Hong Wang Patrick Balungwe Birindwa Marius Baguma Mehmet Ozdener Florian Fischmeister María Bock Pavan Kaushik Cédric Bouyset Antonella Pizio M Hakan Ozdener Preet No Singh Anna d'Errico Liang-Dar Hwang Florian Ph Gccr Group A Moro Maria Cecchini Elizabeth Valerio Mirjam van den Brink
1 CRNL - Centre de recherche en neurosciences de Lyon
Abstract : Abstract In a preregistered, cross-sectional study, we investigated whether olfactory loss is a reliable predictor of COVID-19 using a crowdsourced questionnaire in 23 languages to assess symptoms in individuals self-reporting recent respiratory illness. We quantified changes in chemosensory abilities during the course of the respiratory illness using 0–100 visual analog scales (VAS) for participants reporting a positive (C19+; n = 4148) or negative (C19−; n = 546) COVID-19 laboratory test outcome. Logistic regression models identified univariate and multivariate predictors of COVID-19 status and post-COVID-19 olfactory recovery. Both C19+ and C19− groups exhibited smell loss, but it was significantly larger in C19+ participants (mean ± SD, C19+: −82.5 ± 27.2 points; C19−: −59.8 ± 37.7). Smell loss during illness was the best predictor of COVID-19 in both univariate and multivariate models (ROC AUC = 0.72). Additional variables provide negligible model improvement. VAS ratings of smell loss were more predictive than binary chemosensory yes/no-questions or other cardinal symptoms (e.g., fever). Olfactory recovery within 40 days of respiratory symptom onset was reported for ~50% of participants and was best predicted by time since respiratory symptom onset. We find that quantified smell loss is the best predictor of COVID-19 amongst those with symptoms of respiratory illness. To aid clinicians and contact tracers in identifying individuals with a high likelihood of having COVID-19, we propose a novel 0–10 scale to screen for recent olfactory loss, the ODoR-19. We find that numeric ratings ≤2 indicate high odds of symptomatic COVID-19 (4 < OR < 10). Once independently validated, this tool could be deployed when viral lab tests are impractical or unavailable.
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https://hal-cnrs.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03367315
Contributor : Gérard Coureaud Connect in order to contact the contributor
Submitted on : Thursday, October 7, 2021 - 11:06:51 AM
Last modification on : Friday, October 8, 2021 - 3:27:24 AM

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CNRS | UNIV-ST-ETIENNE | UNIV-LYON1 | UDL

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Richard Gerkin, Kathrin Ohla, Maria Veldhuizen, Paule Joseph, Christine Kelly, et al.. Recent Smell Loss Is the Best Predictor of COVID-19 Among Individuals With Recent Respiratory Symptoms. Chemical Senses, Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021, 46, ⟨10.1093/chemse/bjaa081⟩. ⟨hal-03367315⟩

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