Evaluation of laboratory parameters in 1587 COVID-19 patients admitted to metropolitan hospital area of Bologna, Italy.

Since the outbreak of the 2019 pandemic coronavirus disease (COVID-19), great attention has been given to identifying the main clinical features of the disease. Identification of laboratory parameters able to classify patients based on their risk is mandatory to improve their clinical management. We retrospectively evaluated twenty-six laboratory tests measured in COVID-19 positive patients admitted to the hospital in March and April 2020 to find any correlation between their changes and the risk of death. We divided them into surviving and non-surviving patients. A total of 1587 patients were recruited, 854 males with median age of 71 (IQR 56-81) and 733 females with median age of 77 (IQR 61-87). On admission, death was found to be positively correlated with age (p=0.001), but not with sex (p=0.640) or with hospitalization in days (p=0.827). Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), creatinine, C-reactive protein (CRP), INR, leukocyte count, lymphocyte count, neutrophil count, and procalcitonin (PCT) demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p<0.001), suggesting their role as markers of disease severity; only lymphocyte count resulted as an independent risk factor for death.

Detection of a characteristic melting profile of a SARS-CoV-2 Kappa variant in Italy using the SARS-CoV-2 Variants ELITe MGB® Kit.

BACKGROUND: Although more than a year has passed since the start of the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 infection still represents a major challenge for public health all over the world due to viral genome capability of gaining rapid mutations. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is the gold standard for variant identification, but it is time consuming and relatively expensive. For this reason, assays targeting multiple regions of the SARS-CoV-2 genome may be useful for a rapid traceability of either known or new variants, anyway, not all the manufacturers are able to sustain the rapid development of variants. OBJECTIVE: We tested forty nasopharyngeal swabs, resulted positive for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA at low cycle threshold (CT < 25), with SARS-CoV-2 Variants ELITe MGB® Kit, which was designed to identify Nigerian variant, possible UK variant and South African or Brazilian variant. RESULTS: During the analysis, we noted an atypical melting curve, different from the other variants recognizable by the kit. The subsequent WGS reported this variant as Kappa, so we assess the possibility of "suspecting" the presence of a Kappa variant using SARS-CoV-2 Variants ELITe MGB® Kit. CONCLUSIONS: Rapid variant screening followed by WGS offers the opportunity to study mutation dynamics and quickly identify possible variants of interest (VOI) and/or variants of concern (VOC), which is crucial in virus spreading control. Furthermore, an accurate analysis of the melting peak could be useful to suspect the presence of new variants.