Remote psychophysical evaluation of olfactory and gustatory functions in early-stage coronavirus disease 2019 patients: the Bologna experience of 300 cases

Background: An objective evaluation in the first days of COVID-19 is almost impossible, as these patients are generally in home quarantine and therefore with a limited accessibility for the operator who should perform the test. In order to overcome this limitation, we have used a recently validated psychophysical self-administered test, which can be performed remotely in the assessment of early stage COVID-19 patients Methods: Olfactory and gustatory functions were objectively assessed in 300 patients in the first seven days from the onset of COVID-19. Results: 70% of the patients presented olfactory and / or gustatory disorders. The dysfunctions detected were mainly complete anosmia (47%) or ageusia (38%). A statistically significant correlation was found between taste dysfunctions and the female gender (OR 1.936, p = 0.014) and fever (OR 2.132, p = 0.003) Conclusions: The psychophysical evaluation protocol proposed has proven to be an effective tool for a fast and objective evaluation of patients in the early stages of COVID-19. Chemosensitive disorders have been confirmed to be frequent early symptoms of the coronavirus infection and in a significant number of cases they are the first or only manifestation of COVID-19.