Anosmia is associated with lower in-hospital mortality in COVID-19

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jns.2020.117163Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Anosmia is associated with lower in-hospital mortality on Covid-19 patients.

  • Patients with anosmia are less likely to be admitted to the ICU

  • The clinical presentation of Covid-19 patients with anosmia is associated with cough, myalgia and headache.

  • Patients with anosmia seem to have a higher lymphocyte and erythrocyte count and lower D-dimer and CRP.

Abstract

Background

Anosmia is common in Coronavirus disease 2019, but its impact on prognosis is unknown. We analysed whether anosmia predicts in-hospital mortality; and if patients with anosmia have a different clinical presentation, inflammatory response, or disease severity.

Methods

Retrospective cohort study including all consecutive hospitalized patients with confirmed Covid-19 from March 8th to April 11th, 2020. We determined all-cause mortality and need of intensive care unit (ICU) admission. We registered the first and worst laboratory parameters. Statistical analysis was done by multivariate logistic and linear regression.

Results

We included 576 patients, 43.3% female, and aged 67.2 years in mean. Anosmia was present in 146 (25.3%) patients. Patients with anosmia were more frequently females, younger and less disabled and had less frequently hypertension, diabetes, smoking habit, cardiac and neurological comorbidities. Anosmia was independently associated with lower mortality (OR: 0.180, 95% CI: 0.069–0.472) and ICU admission (OR: 0.438, 95% CI: 0.229–0.838, p = 0.013). In the multivariate analysis, patients with anosmia had a higher frequency of cough (OR: 1.96, 95%CI: 1.18–3.28), headache (OR: 2.58, 95% CI: 1.66–4.03), and myalgia (OR: 1.74, 95% CI: 1.12–2.71). They had higher adjusted values of hemoglobin (+0.87, 95% CI: 0.40–1.34), lymphocytes (+849.24, 95% CI: 157.45–1541.04), glomerular filtration rate (+6.42, 95% CI: 2.14–10.71), and lower D-dimer (−4886.52, 95% CI: −8655.29-(−1117.75)), and C-reactive protein (−24.92, 95% CI: −47.35-(−2.48)).

Conclusions

Hospitalized Covid-19 patients with anosmia had a lower adjusted mortality rate and less severe course of the disease. This could be related to a distinct clinical presentation and a different inflammatory response.

Keywords

COVID-19
Anosmia
Prognosis
Clinical presentation
Mortality

Abbreviations

Coronavirus disease 2019
(Covid-19)
intensive care unit
(ICU)
strengthening the reporting in observational studies in epidemiology
(STROBE)
real-time reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction
(RT-PCR)
emergency department
(ED)
standard of care
(SOC)
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD)
chronic neurological disorders
(CND)
modified Rankin scale
(mRS)
Computerized Tomography
(CT)
reference value
(RV)
hemoglobin
(Hb)
lactate dehydrogenase
(LDH)
creatine-kinase
(CK)
international normalized ratio
(INR)
glomerular filtration rate corrected by body area
(GFR)
C-reactive protein
(CRP)
procalcitonin
(PCT)
interleukine-6
(IL-6)
standard deviation
(SD)
interquartile range
(IQR)
odds ratio
(OR)
confidence intervals
(CI).

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