Demographics, Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of 123 Cases of Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) with Anosmia.

Anosmia has been recently recognized as a symptom of coronavirus disease (Covid-19). This study aimed to define demographics, the clinical course of anosmia in relation to other clinical symptoms, outcome of anosmia in Covid-19 positive patients. This cross-sectional study including all consecutive patients with confirmed Covid-19 from March 8th 2020 to March 7th 2021 at the National Heart Foundation Hospital & Research Institute of Bangladesh. There was subjective evaluation of olfactory function. A total of 769 patients were included in this study. Of whom 123(16.0%) patients had anosmia and 646 (84.0%) were without anosmia. Patients with anosmia were younger (37.07±13.23 years vs. 50.27±15.16 years), predominantly female (52.0% vs. 48.0%) and had fewer co-morbidities (p=0.001). Fever (87.8% vs. 61.0%), fatigue (74.8% vs. 18.9%), cough (60.2% vs. 32.7%), body ache (53.7% vs. 11.9%) and headache (52.0% vs. 9.9%) were the most common findings in patients with anosmia. Nasal congestion symptoms were more prevalent in patients with anosmia {32 cases (26.01%)} compared to patients without anosmia {38 cases (5.88%)} (p=0.001). Most of the patients with anosmia were treated either in home isolation or in institutional isolation (74.8% vs. 16.3%) and most of the patients without anosmia were hospitalized (83.7% vs. 25.2%). Patients with anosmia had milder course and good in-hospital outcome [0% case fatality rate (CFR) vs. 4.2% CFR; p=0.02] as compared to patients without anosmia. Patients with anosmia are usually younger and more frequently female, have a less co-morbidity, a milder course, a lower probability of hospitalization, and associated with favorable prognosis as compared with patients without anosmia.