ReviewBrain, behavior, & immunity - health2021
Olfactory and gustatory dysfunctions in SARS-CoV-2 infection: A systematic review.
Review in Brain, behavior, & immunity - health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Taste loss as a distinct symptom of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Chemical senses · 2023Pooled it
- Association between chemosensory dysfunctions and inflammatory biomarkers in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Inflammopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- The D614G Virus Mutation Enhances Anosmia in COVID-19 Patients: Evidence from a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Studies from South Asia.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Self-reported symptom study of COVID-19 chemosensory dysfunction in Malaysia.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Effect of Long COVID-19: Self-Reported Questionnaires and Objective Olfactory and Gustatory Evaluations.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Prevalence and Clinical Factors Associated with Self-reported Smell and Taste Disorders in Older Adults Hospitalized with COVID-19.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2025Article
- Clinical presentations, systemic inflammation response and ANDC scores in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.Scientific reports · 2024Observational
- Recovery Patterns of COVID-19 Related Smell Disorders: An Analysis of the Available Evidence.Indian journal of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery : official publication of the Association of Otolaryngologists of India · 2023Article
- Symptoms, symptom severity, and contact with primary health care among nonhospitalized COVID-19 patients: a Norwegian web-based survey.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2023Article
- Evaluation of Clinical Features and Olfactory Functions in COVID-19: A Multicentre Study.Cureus · 2023Article
- Is Olfactory Testing a Useful Diagnostic Tool to Identify SARS-CoV-2 Infections Early? A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Antibody response, associated symptoms and profile of patients presumably infected by SARS-CoV-2 with taste or smell disorders in the SAPRIS multicohort study.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Cardiovascular and Neurological Complications of COVID-19: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Olfactory and Gustatory Dysfunction in COVID-19: A Global Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis.The Annals of otology, rhinology, and laryngology · 2023Article
- The Correlation between the Results of the Sniffin' Sticks Test, Demographic Data, and Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders in a Hungarian Population after a SARS-CoV-2 Infection.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Prevalence of Olfactory Dysfunction with the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- COVID-19 Oral Sequelae: Persistent Gustatory and Saliva Secretory Dysfunctions after Recovery from COVID-19.Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science Centre · 2023Review
- Clinical characteristics analysis of COVID-19 patients from the first significant community outbreak by SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 in Taiwan as experienced from a single northern medical center.Journal of microbiology, immunology, and infection = Wei mian yu gan ran za zhi · 2022Article
- Effects of Air Pollution on Chemosensory Dysfunction in COVID-19 Patients.Journal of Korean medical science · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAmong Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) manifestations, Olfactory (OD) and Gustatory (GD) Dysfunctions (OGD) have drawn considerable attention, becoming a sort of hallmark of the disease. Many have speculated on the pathogenesis and clinical characteristics of these disturbances; however, no definite answers have been produced on the topic. With this systematic review, we aimed to collect all the available evidence regarding the prevalence of OGD, the timing of their onset and their resolution, their rate of recovery and their role as diagnostic and prognostic tools for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.
methodsA systematic review comprising all the observational studies that reported the prevalence and/or the longitudinal trajectories of OGD in COVID-19 patients, as self-reported by patients or measured through objective psychophysical tests.
resultsAfter the selection process, 155 studies were included, with a total of 70,920 patients and 105,291 not-infected individuals. Prevalence reports were extremely variable across studies, with wide ranges for OD (0%-98%) and GD (0-89%) prevalence. OGD occurred early during the disease course and only rarely preceded other symptoms; out of 30 studies with a follow-up time of at least 20 days, only in 5 studies OGD fully resolved in more than 90% of patients. OGD had low sensitivity and high specificity for SARS-CoV-2 infection; accuracy of OD and GD for infection identification was higher than 80% in 10 out of 33 studies and in 8 out of 22 studies considered, respectively. 28 out of 30 studies that studied the association between OGD and disease severity found how OGD were associated with lower rates of severe pneumonia, hospitalization and mortality.
conclusionsOGD seem to be highly prevalent in SARS-CoV-2 infection. They occur early, concomitantly with other symptoms and often persist after recovery, in some cases for months; whether a full recovery eventually occurs in all cases is not clear yet. OGD are good predictors of SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with a milder disease course.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.