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University of Nebraska Medical Center

COVID-related loss of smell tied to changes in the brain

CIDRAP A new study of 73 adults recovering from COVID-19 finds that those who lost their sense of smell showed behavioral, functional, and structural brain changes.

Researchers in Chile conducted cognitive screening, performance on a decision-making task, functional testing, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results with 73 patients after mild to moderate COVID-19 infection and 27 COVID-naïve patients with infections from other pathogens. Two follow-up sessions were conducted 15 days apart.

The patients were recruited from public and private hospitals in Santiago an average of 9 months after diagnosis from February 2020 to May 2023. The average age was 40.1 years. The team used loss of smell and need for hospitalization as proxies for potential markers of neurologic involvement and disease severity, respectively.

The results were published late last week in Scientific Reports.

“Given the significant global incidence of COVID-19, identifying factors that can distinguish individuals at risk of developing brain alterations is crucial for prioritizing follow-up care,” the study authors wrote. 

Role of loss of smell as marker

Twenty-two of 73 COVID-19 patients (30.1%) reported having differing degrees of attention and memory problems. Seven patients said they had headaches, six reported fatigue, and four had a persistently impaired sense of smell lasting, on average, 1.3 months. Of these patients, 68% experienced a total loss of smell, while the rest had an altered sense of smell.

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