Short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on multiple sensory systems

项目摘要 自2019年12月中国暴发以来，SARS-CoV-2感染对全球的影响 非同寻常，已有超过3.5亿个病例和超过550万人丧生(世卫组织 冠状病毒仪表板，2022年1月)。尽管采取了各种公共卫生措施，如社会福利 美国和世界上的距离、洗手、口罩和疫苗接种，感染 在新的令人关切的变种(世卫组织)的推动下继续波动。虽然大流行的格局 一直在不断变化，流行病学家和公共卫生专家越来越多地预测 这种病毒最终可能成为地方性疾病，特别是在出现新的动物宿主的情况下。 虽然信息仍在涌现，但新冠肺炎对神经系统影响的全貌 广泛的感觉功能仍然不清楚，特别是在新的变种、疫苗接种、 既往感染和持续治疗。例如，嗅觉丧失一直是 新冠肺炎(&gt；80%)，可以单独出现(新冠肺炎的唯一症状)或先于 出现其他症状。流行病学研究表明，嗅觉丧失是最严重的 新冠肺炎的预测症状，在识别新冠肺炎患者方面比咳嗽、发烧、 头痛或其他典型症状，用于在工作场所、学校和 医疗保健设置。但随着Delta和Omicron变种的出现以及疫苗的接种， 尚不清楚嗅觉功能是否仍像早期那样受到严重影响 大流行。同样，味觉和化学合成(三叉神经)的丧失也与此有关，但没有。 完全区别于鼻腔后气味损失所造成的风味损失。突然发作 新冠肺炎患者中也有听力损失和头晕的自我报告，但目前 尽管大流行已进入第三个年头，但这些证据仍然有限。在这项研究中， 目标1将应用多学科方法来广泛捕获和量化 新冠肺炎对广泛感觉功能(嗅觉、味觉、化学合成、听力、 平衡/前庭功能)，有地方性病毒上呼吸道感染(URI：感冒、流感等) 作为对照组。这些测试将使我们能够广泛探索和区分 新冠肺炎对多种感觉功能的影响及其与疾病特征的关系 例如严重性、感染时的显性变异、疫苗接种状态、先前的感染， 和接受的治疗，有可能将共同和不同的因素描述为 乌里。目标2将广泛评估感觉丧失和恢复的纵向时间进程 新冠肺炎患者，期望根据系统的不同恢复情况 受影响和疾病概况。AIM 3将专门针对新冠肺炎的“长途运输商”， 有持续症状的患者(&gt；90天)，以检查不同的特征 长期患病期间的感觉丧失和恢复。这项研究的结果 可以重要地扩大我们对广泛性感觉丧失和 他们在新冠肺炎患者中的康复。

Project Summary Since its outbreak in China in December 2019, the global impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection has been extraordinary, with over 350 million cases and more than 5.5 million lives lost (WHO Coronavirus Dashboard, Jan 2022). Despite various public health measures, such as social distancing, handwashing, face masking, and vaccination, infections in the US and the world continue in waves driven by new variants of concern (WHO). While the pandemic landscape has been constantly shifting, epidemiologists and public health experts increasingly project that the virus could eventually become endemic, especially with emerging zoological reservoirs. While information is still emerging, the full picture of neurological consequences of COVID-19 to broad sensory functions remains unclear, especially in the context of new variants, vaccination, prior infection, and ongoing treatment. For example, smell loss has been a hallmark symptom of COVID-19 (>80%) and can present in isolation (the only symptom of COVID-19) or precede the occurrence of other symptoms. Epidemiology studies have shown that smell loss is the most predictive symptom for COVID-19, better in identifying COVID-19 patients than cough, fever, headache, or other typical symptoms used to screen for COVID-19 in workplaces, schools, and health care settings. But with the emergence of Delta and Omicron variants and vaccination, it is unclear whether olfaction function is still severely impacted as in the early stage of the pandemic. Similarly, taste and chemesthesis (trigeminal) losses have been implicated but not fully differentiated from the flavor loss caused by retronasal smell losses. Sudden onset of hearing loss and dizziness have also been self-reported among COVID-19 patients, but current evidence for these are still limited, despite being in the 3rd year of the pandemic. In this study, Aim 1 will apply multidisciplinary methodologies to extensively capture and quantify the full impact of COVID-19 on broad sensory functions (smell, taste, chemesthesis, hearing, balance/vestibular function), with endemic viral upper respiratory infection (URI: cold, flu, etc.) as a comparison group. These tests will allow us to extensively explore and differentiate the impact of COVID-19 on multiple sensory functions and their association with the disease profile, such as severity, dominant variant at the time of infection, vaccination status, prior infections, and treatment received, with potential to characterize common and distinct factors to that of URI. Aim 2 will broadly assess the longitudinal time course of sensory loss and recovery among COVID-19 patients, with the expectation that recovery can vary depending on the system affected and the disease profile. Aim 3 will specifically focus on COVID-19 “long haulers”, patients who have persistent symptoms (>90 days), to examine the different characteristics in sensory losses and recovery during the prolonged disease phase. The outcomes of this study could importantly expand our understanding of the characteristics of broad sensory losses and their recovery among COVID-19 patients.