Laboratory Diagnosis and Monitoring the Viral Shedding of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

The Innovation

Yingxia Liu¹  Gary Wong²  Jianming Li³  Kai Feng³  Yang Yang³  Mingxia Zhang³  Haixia Zheng³  Lei Liu³  Fuxiang Wang³  Qianting Yang³  Juanjuan Zhao³  Jing Yuan³  Ling Peng³  Jinxiu Li³  Mingfeng Liao³  Jinli Wei³  Weibo Wu³  Zhaoqin Wang³  Minghui Yang³  Li Xing³  Chenguang Shen³ 

[1] Corresponding author;Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China;Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Immunity, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease, State Key Discipline of Infectious Disease, Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital, Second Hospital Affiliated to Southern University of Science and Technology, No. 29, Bulan Road, Longgang District, Shenzhen 518112, China;

关键词: SARS-CoV-2;    COVID-19;    molecular diagnosis;    respiratory specimens;    viral shedding;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Summary: The worldwide epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is ongoing. Rapid and accurate detection of the causative virus SARS-CoV-2 is vital for the treatment and control of COVID-19. In this study, the comparative sensitivity of different respiratory specimen types were retrospectively analyzed using 3,552 clinical samples from 410 COVID-19 patients confirmed by Guangdong CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Except for bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), the sputum possessed the highest positive rate (73.4%–87.5%), followed by nasal swabs (53.1%–85.3%) for both severe and mild cases during the first 14 days after illness onset (d.a.o.). Viral RNA could be detected in all BALF samples collected from the severe group within 14 d.a.o. and lasted up to 46 d.a.o. Moreover, although viral RNA was negative in the upper respiratory samples, it was also positive in BALF samples in most cases from the severe group during treatment. Notably, no viral RNA was detected in BALF samples from the mild group. Despite typical ground-glass opacity observed via computed tomographic scans, no viral RNA was detected in the first three or all upper respiratory tract specimens from some COVID-19 patients. In conclusion, sputum is most sensitive for routine laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19, followed by nasal swabs. Detection of viral RNA in BALF improves diagnostic accuracy in severe COVID-19 patients.

【 授权许可】

Unknown