Gustatory and olfactory sensitivities in non-immunized patients diagnosed with covid-19.

• Grant number: 24/13022-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Lílian Neto Aguiar Ricz
• Grantee: Leilaine Dota
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (FMRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Objective: to characterize and compare the gustatory discrimination and olfactory acuity of non-immunized individuals who were diagnosed with COVID-19, at different times: during hospitalization and after hospital discharge. Methodology: retrospective study, in non-immunized and immunized patients. The sample will be for convenience of medical records of adult and elderly patients, of both sexes, who were admitted to the Intensive Care Center of a public hospital, due to the clinical worsening of SARS-COV-2 infection, during the years 2020 and 2021. The data contained in the electronic medical record of the patient treated by speech therapy will be used. For the retrospective analysis, data from the gustatory and olfactory sensitivity protocol will be collected. The service protocol describes taste strips applied to the tongue, considering sweet, salty, acidic, bitter, umami and neutral flavors, in different concentrations. To record olfactory acuity, isopropanol solutions in different concentrations are used. Result: analysis of the medical records will be carried out in a descriptive way of sociodemographic and clinical variables Qualitative variables will be expressed in absolute and relative frequency tables. Quantitative variables will be expressed in measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion and box-plot. To compare the results of taste discrimination and olfactory acuity between the times evaluated, tests for paired samples will be applied. The Student's T test for paired samples (parametric test) and the Wilcoxon test (non-parametric test) will be used to compare numerical variables. The significance level adopted will be 0.05 to reject the null hypothesis of equality. SPPS v.20 and Origin 2018 software were used.Keywords: Palate. Smell. Covid-19.