Abstract:

Objective To investigate the role of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2（SARS-CoV-2） viral load in predicting the severity of corona virus disease 2019（COVID-19）. Methods Nasopharyngeal swabs of 264 COVID-19 patients admitted to Wuhan Asia General Hospital from January 29,2020 to February 22,2020 were collected to detect SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction（PCR）. There were 243 cases of mild group and 21 cases of severe group. The Ct value change trend and the time of nucleic acid negative transition were recorded in the mild and severe groups. Their general data were anlyzed. Results Among the 264 COVID-19 patients,142 cases were males,and 122 cases were females. The age was 55.7±16.11. The viral load of severe patients（Ct value 25.80±4.46） was higher than that of mild patients（Ct value 30.25±4.26）（P<0.001）,and the severe patients [（26.7±5.6）d] had longer nucleic acid negative transition time than that of mild patients [（16.3±4.7）d]（P<0.001）. Conclusions The viral load of SARS-CoV-2 and the time of nucleic acid existence are correlated with the severity of COVID-19,which can predict the severity of COVID-19.

Key words: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, Viral load, Corona virus disease 2019