Covid 19 pandemic: Paranasal diagnostic imaging in patients with olfactory loss

Abstract Objective: COVID-19; It is an infectious disease that starts with cold symptoms and causes Acute Respiratory Failure, causing deaths all over the world. Besides the common symptoms of the disease such as fever, dyspnea and cough, recently, a “sudden loss of smell” has been added as a diagnostic symptom.Materials and Methods: Clinical and demographic features, Tomography results, and odor test scores of 40 patients diagnosed as sudden olfactory loss using Connecticut (CCCRC) Olfactory Test ”will be evaluated together, and odor disorder and clinical and radiological findings will be compared.Results: There was no significant difference in smell loss in terms of gender. No relationship was found between smoking and degree of smell disorder. (p> 0.05) When we evaluated the paranasal CTs taken from our patients with odor loss, 2 patients' CT showed pathological findings (p <0.05). As the patients' illness worsened, an increase in the degree of odor loss was observed (p <0.05). Between the CCCRC score and presence of PNS CT findings, a significant statistical relationship was found (p = 0.0012)Conclusion : Olfactory loss was not related to age, gender, smoking. PNS CT findings were significantly correlated with the degree of olfactory loss. In patients with olfactory loss, evaluation with a PNS CT may be diagnostic in terms of COVID-19. However, in order for this examination to be diagnostic, a larger patient series is needed.