SARS‐CoV‐2 can be detected in urine, blood, anal swabs, and oropharyngeal swabs specimens

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) ribonucleic acid (RNA) in urine and blood specimens, and anal and oropharyngeal swabs from patients with confirmed SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, and correlated positive results with clinical findings.

Methods

Patients with confirmed SARS‐CoV‐2 infections were included in this study. Patients' demographic and clinical data were recorded. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction was used to detect SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA in urine and blood specimens, and anal and oropharyngeal swabs. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (No. NCT04279782, 19 February, 2020).

Results

SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA was present in all four specimen types, though not all specimen types were positive simultaneously. The presence of viral RNA was not necessarily predictive of clinical symptoms, for example, the presence of viral RNA in the urine did not necessarily predict urinary tract symptoms.

Conclusions

SARS‐CoV‐2 can infect multiple systems, including the urinary tract. Testing different specimen types may be useful for monitoring disease changes and progression, and for establishing a prognosis.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.02.21.20026179: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: This study was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.
    Consent: All patients voluntarily signed an informed consent form approved by the IRB before participation.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.