ABSTRACT
Background@#Long coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in recovered patients (RPs) is gradually recognized by more people. However, how long it will last and the underlining mechanism remains unclear. @*Methods@#We conducted a prospective follow-up study to evaluate the long-term symptoms and clinical indices of RPs at one-year after discharge from Union Hospital, Wuhan, China between December 2020 to May 2021. We also performed the 16S rRNA sequencing of stool samples from RPs and healthy controls (HCs) and analyzed the correlation between the gut microbiota and long COVID-19. @*Results@#In total, 187 RPs were enrolled, among them, 84 (44.9%) RPs reported long COVID-19 symptoms at one-year after discharge. The most common long-term symptoms were cardiopulmonary symptoms, including chest tightness after activity (39/187, 20.9%), palpitations on exercise (27/187, 14.4%), sputum (21/187, 11.2%), cough (15/187, 8.0%) and chest pain (13/187, 7.0%), followed by systemic symptoms including fatigue (34/187, 18.2%) and myalgia (20/187, 10.7%), and digestive symptoms including constipation (14/187, 7.5%), anorexia (13/187, 7.0%), and diarrhea (8/187, 4.3%). Sixty-six (35.9%) RPs presented either anxiety or depression (42/187 [22.8%] and 53/187 [28.8%] respectively), and the proportion of anxiety or depression in the long symptomatic group was significantly higher than that in the asymptomatic group (41/187 [50.6%] vs. 25/187 [24.3%]). Compared with the asymptomatic group, scores of all nine 36-Item Short Form General Health Survey domains were lower in the symptomatic group (all P < 0.05). One hundred thirty RPs and 32 HCs (non-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infected subjects) performed fecal sample sequencing.Compared with HCs, symptomatic RPs had obvious gut microbiota dysbiosis including significantly reduced bacterial diversities and lower relative abundance of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)-producing salutary symbionts such as Eubacterium_hallii_group, Subdoligranulum, Ruminococcus, Dorea, Coprococcus, and Eubacterium_ventriosum_group. Meanwhile, the relative abundance of Eubacterium_hallii_group, Subdoligranulum, and Ruminococcus showed decreasing tendencies between HCs, the asymptomatic group, and the symptomatic group. @*Conclusion@#This study demonstrated the presence of long COVID-19 which correlates with gut microbiota dysbiosis in RPs at one-year after discharge, indicating gut microbiota may play an important role in long COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
ObjectivesEvaluate the risk factors of prolonged SARS-CoV-2 virus shedding and the impact of arbidol treatment on SARS-CoV-2 virus shedding. MethodsData were retrospective collected from adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wuhan Union Hospital. We described the clinical features and SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding of patients with COVID-19 and evaluated factors associated with prolonged virus shedding by multivariate regression analysis. ResultsAmong 238 patients, the median age was 55.5 years, 57.1% were female, 92.9% (221/238) used arbidol, 58.4% (139/238) used arbidol combination with interferon. The median time from illness onset to start arbidol was 8 days (IQR, 5-14 days) and the median duration of SARS-CoV-2 virus shedding was 23 days (IQR, 17.8-30 days). SARS-CoV-2 RNA clearance was significantly delayed in patients who received arbidol >7 days after illness onset, compared with those in whom arbidol treatment was started[≤]7 days after illness onset (HR, 1.738 [95% CI, 1.339-2.257], P < .001). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that prolonged viral shedding was significantly associated with initiation arbidol more than seven days after symptom onset (OR 2.078, 95% CI [1.114-3.876], P .004), more than 7 days from onset of symptoms to first medical visitation (OR 3.321, 95% CI[1.559-7.073], P .002), illness onset before Jan.31, 2020 (OR 3.223, 95% CI[1.450-7.163], P .021). Arbidol combination with interferon was also significantly associated with shorter virus shedding (OR .402, 95% CI[.206-.787], P .008). ConclusionsEarly initiation of arbidol and arbidol combination with interferon as well as consulting doctor timely after illness onset were helpful for SARS-CoV-2 clearance.
