Clinical and Radiological Evaluations of COVID-19 Patients with Anosmia: Preliminary Report.

Objective: To investigate clinical and radiological features of olfactory clefts of patients with mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: Sixteen COVID-19 patients were recruited. The epidemiological and clinical data were extracted. Nasal complaints were assessed through the sino-nasal outcome test 22 (SNOT-22). Patients underwent psychophysical olfactory testing, olfactory cleft examination and CT-scan. Results: Sixteen anosmic patients were included. The mean Sniffin Sticks score was 4.6+/-1.7. The majority of patients had no endoscopical abnormality, with a mean olfactory cleft endoscopy score of 0.6+/-0.9. The olfactory clefts were opacified in 3 patients on the CT-scan. The mean radiological olfactory cleft score was 0.7+/-0.8. There were no significant correlations between clinical, radiological and psychophysical olfactory testing. Conclusion: The olfactory cleft of anosmic COVID-19 patients is free regarding endoscopic examination and imaging. The anosmia etiology would be not related to edema of the olfactory cleft.