A non-randomized comparative study of olfactory and gustatory functions in children who recovered from COVID-19 (1-year follow-up)

Leyla Namazova-Baranova; George Karkashadze; Irina Zelenkova; Elena Vishneva; Elena Kaytukova; Dina Rusinova; Natalia Ustinova; Natalia Sergienko; Yulia Nesterova; Leonid Yatsyk; Dmitrii Kratko; Svetlana Gubanova; Viktor Gankovskiy; Tina Gogberashvili; Tatiana Konstantinidi; Darya Bushueva; Anastasia Rykunova; Elena Shirdanina; Svetlana Sadilloeva; Natalia Sergeeva; Anastasia Lamasova; Elizaveta Leonova; Alina Pankova; Ekaterina Dubonosova

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.919061

A non-randomized comparative study of olfactory and gustatory functions in children who recovered from COVID-19 (1-year follow-up)

Front Pediatr. 2022 Sep 9:10:919061. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.919061. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Leyla Namazova-Baranova^{1

2}, George Karkashadze¹, Irina Zelenkova¹, Elena Vishneva^{1

2}, Elena Kaytukova^{1

2}, Dina Rusinova^{2

3}, Natalia Ustinova¹, Natalia Sergienko¹, Yulia Nesterova¹, Leonid Yatsyk¹, Dmitrii Kratko¹, Svetlana Gubanova¹, Viktor Gankovskiy¹, Tina Gogberashvili¹, Tatiana Konstantinidi¹, Darya Bushueva¹, Anastasia Rykunova³, Elena Shirdanina³, Svetlana Sadilloeva¹, Natalia Sergeeva¹, Anastasia Lamasova^{1

2}, Elizaveta Leonova^{1

2}, Alina Pankova^{1

2}, Ekaterina Dubonosova¹

Affiliations

¹ Pediatrics and Child Health Research Institute, Russian Scientific Center of Surgery Named After Academician B. V. Petrovsky, Moscow, Russia.
² Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia.
³ Department of Health, City Child Polyclinics No 133, Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

The experimental group included 68 children over 6 years of age who had recovered from COVID-19. The control group included 22 children over 6 years of age who have never had COVID-19. Research methods included neurological examination, verification of cognitive status, examination by an otolaryngologist, and smell and taste assessment. The examination was performed 6-8 weeks after COVID-19 recovery and after 1 year in some patients. Children who recovered from COVID-19 had a reduction in their ability to smell compared to children who had never had COVID-19. The olfactory thresholds and taste identification scores after recovery from COVID-19 were identical, whether the parents had reported anosmia in their children during COVID-19 or not, and irrespective of hyperthermia level and the presence or absence of headache and hyperhidrosis during COVID-19. Analysis of correlation with neuropsychiatric symptoms showed no differences in the olfactory thresholds in children irrespective of the presence of neuropsychiatric symptoms (tics, tremors, enuresis, compulsive movements, seizures, speech disorders, attention deficit, and easy fatigability) both in general, and in particular among subjects performing or not any compulsive movements, and experiencing or not a combination of easy fatigability and daytime sleepiness. Evidence suggests that in children and adolescents, partial hyposmia is associated with depressive symptoms, varying in severity from low to high, but symptoms of depression were not caused by COVID-19 infection itself. Analysis in subgroups with different degrees of state and trait anxiety did not reveal any significant differences in the olfactory threshold. A re-examination of 21 children was performed after 1 year. An objective olfactometric examination showed that the sensitivity to odorants increased significantly. In 1 year, we compared the thresholds of smell in children who had COVID-19 and those who did not have this disease: olfactory sensitivity after COVID-19 in children is restored to normal values. Schulte correction test showed that none of 14 children with asthenic manifestations in the form of fluctuations or exhaustion when performing the test immediately after COVID-19 had these manifestations after 1 year. Thus, asthenization of cognitive activity was recorded within the next 1.5 months after suffering from COVID-19 but was absent after 1 year.

Keywords: COVID-19; children; cognitive functions; olfactometry; olfactory and gustatory functions.

Namazova-Baranova, Karkashadze, Zelenkova, Vishneva, Kaytukova, Ustinova, Rusinova, Sergienko, Nesterova, Yatsyk, Kratko, Gubanova, Gankovskiy, Gogberashvili, Konstantinidi, Bushueva, Rykunova, Shirdanina, Sadilloeva, Sergeeva, Lamasova, Leonova, Pankova and Dubonosova.