European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: The Covid pandemic has caused major disaster globally. It has been established, that the sinonasal-tract involvement plays a significant role in Covid-19 infection. Anosmia is one of the commonest symptoms of covid-19, ranging from 20-70%. But very few studies have shown the relationship between anosmia and Covid-19 related morbidity and mortality. The basic aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of anosmia in Covid-19 patients and the correlation of anosmia to the disease severity. Methodology:  This is a retrospective observational study. Patients >18 years of age with Covid disease (RTPCR proven), without any cardiac/respiratory comorbidities were included. The prevalence of anosmia, the incidence of hospitalizations, requirement of oxygen, disease severity and mortality were noted. The association of anosmia with the severity of covid-19 disease has been calculated and analyzed. Results: The prevalence of anosmia in hospitalized patients is 41.67%. Out of 112 covid patients with anosmia, 87 (77.68%) patients did not require hospitalization, but out of 98 patients without anosmia, 35 patients (35.71%) were hospitalised. 102(91.07%) patients with anosmia did not require any kind of oxygen support but 32 patients among 98 patients with no anosmia(32.65%) required oxygen support during the course of the disease. The mean of lowest recorded saturation in anosmic patients is 95.14 and the non-anosmic patients is 91.89. Among the anosmic patients 96 patients (85.71%) did not record the saturation below 94% in room air throughout the course of the disease. Contrary to that, in non-anosmic group 46 patients (46.94%) had a drop in saturation below 94 %. Conclusion: Presence of Anosmia is associated with improved outcome as evidenced by low hospitalization rates, less fall in Spo2 and less oxygen requirement during the course of the disease. So, anosmia can be used as a tool in future to predict the overall outcome in covid-19 disease.