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Article Dans Une Revue Communications Medicine Année : 2022

An olfactory self-test effectively screens for COVID-19

Kobi Snitz
  • Fonction : Auteur
Danielle Honigstein
  • Fonction : Auteur
Reut Weissgross
Aharon Ravia
Eva Mishor
Ofer Perl
  • Fonction : Auteur
Shiri Karagach
  • Fonction : Auteur
Abebe Medhanie
  • Fonction : Auteur
Nir Harel
  • Fonction : Auteur
Sagit Shushan
  • Fonction : Auteur
Yehudah Roth
  • Fonction : Auteur
Behzad Iravani
Artin Arshamian
  • Fonction : Auteur
Gernot Ernst
Masako Okamoto
  • Fonction : Auteur
Cindy Poo
  • Fonction : Auteur
Niccolò Bonacchi
Zachary Mainen
Erminio Monteleone
  • Fonction : Auteur
Caterina Dinnella
Sara Spinelli
  • Fonction : Auteur
Franklin Mariño-Sánchez
  • Fonction : Auteur
Monique Smeets
  • Fonction : Auteur
Kazushige Touhara
  • Fonction : Auteur
Moustafa Bensafi
Thomas Hummel
  • Fonction : Auteur
Johan Lundström
Noam Sobel

Résumé

Abstract Background Key to curtailing the COVID-19 pandemic are wide-scale screening strategies. An ideal screen is one that would not rely on transporting, distributing, and collecting physical specimens. Given the olfactory impairment associated with COVID-19, we developed a perceptual measure of olfaction that relies on smelling household odorants and rating them online. Methods Each participant was instructed to select 5 household items, and rate their perceived odor pleasantness and intensity using an online visual analogue scale. We used this data to assign an olfactory perceptual fingerprint, a value that reflects the perceived difference between odorants. We tested the performance of this real-time tool in a total of 13,484 participants (462 COVID-19 positive) from 134 countries who provided 178,820 perceptual ratings of 60 different household odorants. Results We observe that olfactory ratings are indicative of COVID-19 status in a country, significantly correlating with national infection rates over time. More importantly, we observe indicative power at the individual level (79% sensitivity and 87% specificity). Critically, this olfactory screen remains effective in participants with COVID-19 but without symptoms, and in participants with symptoms but without COVID-19. Conclusions The current odorant-based olfactory screen adds a component to online symptom-checkers, to potentially provide an added first line of defense that can help fight disease progression at the population level. The data derived from this tool may allow better understanding of the link between COVID-19 and olfaction.
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Origine : Publication financée par une institution

Dates et versions

hal-03860472 , version 1 (18-11-2022)

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Kobi Snitz, Danielle Honigstein, Reut Weissgross, Aharon Ravia, Eva Mishor, et al.. An olfactory self-test effectively screens for COVID-19. Communications Medicine, 2022, 2 (1), pp.34. ⟨10.1038/s43856-022-00095-7⟩. ⟨hal-03860472⟩
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