Association Between Upper Respiratory Tract Viral Load, Comorbidities, Disease Severity, and Outcome of Patients With SARS-CoV-2 Infection.
J Infect Dis
; 223(7): 1132-1138, 2021 04 08.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1003585
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
There is limited information on the association between upper respiratory tract (URT) viral loads, host factors, and disease severity in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients.METHODS:
We studied 1122 patients (mean age, 46 years) diagnosed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). URT viral load, measured by PCR cycle threshold, was categorized as high, moderate, or low.RESULTS:
There were 336 (29.9%) patients with comorbidities; 309 patients (27.5%) had high, 316 (28.2%) moderate, and 497 (44.3%) low viral load. In univariate analyses, compared to patients with moderate or low viral load, patients with high viral load were older, more often had comorbidities, developed Symptomatic disease (COVID-19), were intubated, and died. Patients with high viral load had longer stay in intensive care unit and longer intubation compared to patients with low viral load (P valuesâ <â .05 for all comparisons). Patients with chronic cardiovascular disease, hypertension, chronic pulmonary disease, immunosuppression, obesity, and chronic neurological disease more often had high viral load (P valueâ <â .05 for all comparisons). In multivariate analysis high viral load was associated with COVID-19. Level of viral load was not associated with any other outcome.CONCLUSIONS:
URT viral load could be used to identify patients at higher risk for morbidity or severe outcome.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Severity of Illness Index
/
Viral Load
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
J Infect Dis
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Infdis
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