Seroprevalence of immunoglobulin M and G antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in ophthalmic patients

  1. Shengjie Li
  2. Yichao Qiu
  3. Li Tang
  4. Zhujian Wang
  5. Wenjun Cao
  6. Gezhi Xu
  7. Xinghuai Sun

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Abstract

Using serological test to estimate the prevalence and infection potential of coronavirus disease 2019 in ocular diseases patients help understand the relationship between ocular diseases and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. We conducted a cross-sectional study assaying the IgG and IgM antibodies in 1331 individuals with ocular diseases by using a magnetic chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay kit, during the period from February 2020 to May 2020. In our study, the seroposivity in total ocular disease patients was 0.83% (11/1331). The patients with different ocular diseases including xerophthalmia, keratitis, conjunctival cyst, cataract, glaucoma, refractive error, strabismus and others had seroposivity of 2.94%, 12.5%, 25%, 4.41%, 2.63%, 1.6%, 2.22% and 0%, respectively. Among that, two ocular surface disease groups (keratitis and conjunctival cyst) had higher seroprevalence compared with others. All the participants were reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction negative for SARS-CoV-2 from throat swabs. Our study evaluated the seroprevalence in patients with different ocular diseases, which will help us understand the relationship between ocular disease and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Furthermore, the serological test for the presence of IgM and/or IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 might provide accurate estimate of the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with ocular diseases.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.09.22.20198465: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Ethics approval was obtained from the Medical Ethics Committee of the Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University.
    Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all participants.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    IgG and IgM antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and nucleoprotein were measured using a commercially available magnetic chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay kit (Bioscience, Chongqing, China).
    SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and nucleoprotein
    suggested: None

    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:
    Our study has certain limitations. It was a single-center study, and the patient sample was not large enough, which might have influenced the seroprevalence estimation. Moreover, if samples were collected before infected individuals had a serological response, the serological assays may have produced false negatives. In conclusion, seroprevalence was particularly high in patients with ocular surface diseases. Therefore, increasing awareness of eye protection during the pandemic is necessary, especially for individuals with ocular surface diseases.

    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 10.1101/2020.09.22.20198465v2 on medRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.09.22.20198465v1 on medRxiv