Clinical Symptoms in Hospitalized and Self-Quarantined Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Northwestern Greece - Association with Olfactory and Gustatory Dysfunction.

Backround: We aimed to assess the relation of chemosensory dysfunction with the reported symptoms in two subgroups of patients in Northwestern Greece: the first one included patients with moderate to severe symptomatology who needed hospitalization and the second one, patients with mild symptoms who recovered at home. Methods:We used a questionnaire to select information about patient demographics, medical history and reported symptoms during infection. Three hundred COVID-19 positive patients who were identified via RT-PCR test in the University Hospital of Ioannina, Greece, were included in the present study, of which 150 recovered at home and the remaining 150 needed hospitalization. Statistical analysis was based on IBM-SPSS Statistics 26.0. Results:The majority of patients had fever during infection, while o minor percentage of those who needed hospitalization (12.67%) suffered from sore throat. There was a statistically significant difference between the loss of smell and clinical symptoms including fatigue, nose congestion, body aches and headache, and loss of taste and reported symptoms including fatigue, body aches, runny nose, headache and sore throat. Conclusion: Fever was the symptom with the highest percentage rate, while sore throat was the symptom with the lowest percentage rate. There are reported clinical symptoms related with olfactory and gustatory dysfunction during COVID-19 infection.