No SARS-CoV-2 in expressed prostatic secretion of patients with coronavirus disease 2019: a descriptive multicentre study in China

  1. Weihe Quan
  2. Jun Chen
  3. Zhigang Liu
  4. Jinfei Tian
  5. Xiangqiu Chen
  6. Tao Wu
  7. Ziliang Ji
  8. Jinqi Tang
  9. Hao Chu
  10. Haijia Xu
  11. Yong Zhao
  12. Qingyou Zheng

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the present study was to assess whether SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in the expressed prostatic secretion (EPS) of patients with corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Methods

18 cases of COVID-19, and 5 suspected cases, were selected from three medical centers to detect the RNA expression of SARS-CoV-2 in their EPS with RT-PCR.

Results

Results were negative in all EPS samples for SARS-CoV-2 of suspected and confirmed patients.

Conclusions

No SARS-CoV-2 was expressed in EPS of patients with COVID-19.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.26.20044198: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The study was approved by the ethics committee of each hospital (NYSZYYEC20200008, KY2020-022, 2020-005), and has been registered in Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2000030756).
    Consent: The patient consent was obtained.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical analysis: SPSS software (version 20.0) was used for statistical analysis.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    However, some limitations should be noted. First, although those samples were collected from three medical centers with different prevalence rates, EPS were tested only in mild and common patients, excluding samples of severe patients. Second, semen samples were not obtained, due to some restrictions like non-private ward environment of mobile cabin hospitals, anxiety during isolation period, so the safety of sexual intercourse still remains to be known. Third, our sample size is relatively small, with only 60 cases. In the next study, large samples and long-term follow-up are needed to assess whether sexual intercourse is a potential route for virus transmission.

    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.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.03.26.20044198v1 on medRxiv