This article is a Preprint
Preprints are preliminary research reports that have not been certified by peer review. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Preprints posted online allow authors to receive rapid feedback and the entire scientific community can appraise the work for themselves and respond appropriately. Those comments are posted alongside the preprints for anyone to read them and serve as a post publication assessment.
Negative nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 PCR conversion in Response to different therapeutic interventions
Preprint
in English
| medRxiv
| ID: ppmedrxiv-20095679
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUNDDespite lack of convincing evidence of the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, it has been suggested to be used for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 to accelerate the negative virus conversion. We aimed to explore the association between negative nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 PCR clearance and different therapeutic interventions. METHODOLOGYThis was a retrospective cohort study of 93 patients who were admitted to medical ward with a PCR confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 and met the inclusion criteria in a tertiary hospital in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. There were three interventional subgroups (group A (n=45) who received antimalarial drug only classified as (A1), combined with azithromycin (A2) or combined with antiviral drugs (A3)), and one supportive care group (group B) (n=48). The primary and secondary endpoints of the study were achieving negative SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal PCR sample within five days or less from the start of the intervention and 12 days or less from the diagnose, respectively. RESULTSThe mean age of the patients was 43.9 years (SD15.9). A median time of 3.00 days (IQR2.00-6.50) needed from the time of starting the intervention/supportive care to the first negative PCR sample. There was no statistically significant difference neither between the percentage of patients in the interventional group and the supportive care group who achieved the primary or the secondary endpoint, nor in the median time needed to achieve the first negative PCR sample (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONPrescribing antimalarial medications was not shown to shorten the disease course nor to accelerate the negative PCR conversion rate.
cc_by_nc_nd
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Preprints
Database:
medRxiv
Type of study:
Cohort_studies
/
Experimental_studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Year:
2020
Document type:
Preprint