A Research on the Results of Viral Nucleic Acid Tests and CT Imaging Variation of Patients with COVID-19

  1. Meng Xu
  2. Xun Liu
  3. Chuhong Su
  4. Yuping Zeng
  5. Jinqian Zhang
  6. Xuwen Li
  7. Guirong Liu
  8. Jinjun Xie
  9. Hongyong Liu
  10. Yusheng Jie

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Abstract

Background

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global health problem. We aim to investigate the changes in the results of viral nucleic acid tests on pharyngeal swabs and feces of patients with COVID-19 and CT imaging of lungs as the disease progresses.

Methods

Seven patients with COVID-19 in the third affiliated hospital of Sun Yat-sen University Yuedong Hospital were retrospectively enrolled with clinical features, including imaging staging, and performance characteristics of viral nucleic acid test results of pharyngeal swabs and feces. The dynamic changes of these features were observed during hospitalization, and therapeutic effect and prognosis of patients were evaluated.

Results

The results of seven cases with COVID-19 were positive for viral nucleic acid tests on pharyngeal swabs early after the onset of symptoms, and then turned negative; while the results of viral nucleic acid tests on feces were persistently positive in the mid-term clinical treatment and recovery period. And the viral nucleic acid test results were capricious in three cases. Pulmonary CT imaging showed characteristic changes in early, advanced and recovery phases.

Conclusion

The application of viral nucleic acid detection and pulmonary CT imaging can be used for screening of suspected cases. Fecal nucleic acid test should be recommended as the reference of discharge standard, in order to minimize the risk of transmission from digestive tract.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.08.20037556: (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 Ethics Committee of the third affiliated hospital of Sun Yat-sen university Yuedong hospital [2020–01].
    Consent: Written informed consent was waived owing to the rapid emergence of this infectious disease.
    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.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.08.20037556 on medRxiv