COVID-19 have normal gustatory function when evaluated with validated psychophysical tests, according to a research letter published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. Paolo Boscolor-Rizzo, MD, and colleagues examined whether psychophysical tests confirmed self-reported alteration of taste among patients reporting persistent, distorted taste at least 3 months after acute COVID-19. The analysis included 105 adults with psychophysical evaluation performed a median of 226 days after illness onset. Most (98.1%) had mildly symptomatic COVID-19 with no evidence of pneumonia. Almost all patients (94.3%) self-reported an associated olfactory impairment. A Taste Strips Score showed the prevalence of hypogeusia was 41.9%, which dropped to 28.6% when adjusting for age. Only three patients (2.9%) had hypogeusia and were normosmic. With an increasing Threshold, Discrimination, and Identification (TDI) score, the prevalence of normogeusic patients increased. Among 61 patients who were normogeusic, 83.6% had a TDI score of less than 30.75, and 26.2% had a retronasal score of less than 12. Only 16.4% had both normal orthonasal and retronasal olfactory function.

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