Abstract
Purpose: Upon the outbreak of 2019, novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic confirmed the cases surpassed 20 million. Despite a few reports identified the association of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with ocular manifestations, it may assess the ocular symptoms of patients with the COVID-19 by ophthalmologists facilitate the diagnosis and prevent transmission.
Methods: A total of 60 patients with the COVID-19 admitted to Baghiatallah hospital from March 2020 to May 2020 were retrospectively reviewed and analyzed for the ocular manifestations, blood tests, and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for SARS-CoV-2 using nasopharyngeal and conjunctival swabs.
Results: Among 60 included patients with clinically confirmed COVID-19, the median age 58.36 years (IQR: 30-88 years), 27 (45%) were male. Furthermore, 29 (48%) and 5 (8%) patients yielded positive for SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR from nasopharyngeal swabs and conjunctival specimens, respectively. Among 60 patients, 10 (16%) and 3 (5%), respectively, had the ocular manifestations and positive results for SARS-CoV-2 on RT-PCR from conjunctival and nasopharyngeal swabs.
Conclusion: Although the positive rate of tear RT-PCR rate is not noticeable as nasopharyngeal swabs yet, COVID-19 transmission through the eyes is biologically plausible.
Keywords: COVID-19; Nasopharyngeal RT-PCR; Ocular manifestation; Tear RT-PCR.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Nasopharyngeal RT-PCR, Ocular manifestation, Tear RT-PCR., 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, pandemic, hospital, Diagnosis, Transmission, Symptom, severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus, RT-PCR, Novel coronavirus, Nasopharyngeal swab, outbreak, nasopharyngeal swabs, nasopharyngeal, male, Patient, Manifestations, age, eye, positive rate, specimens, patients, association, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, manifestation, COVID-19 transmission, reverse transcriptase, Chain Reaction, blood tests, acute respiratory syndrome, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, median age, positive result, eyes, positive, conjunctival swabs, conjunctival, ocular symptoms, ocular, Tear, Prevent, analyzed, clinically, facilitate, surpassed, the median, 【제목키워드】 Infection, detection, patients with SARS-CoV-2,