Introduction We aimed to examine if severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) cycle quantification (C q ) value, as a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 viral load, could predict hospitalisation and disease severity in adult patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods We performed a prospective cohort study of adult patients with PCR positive SARS-CoV-2 airway samples including all out-patients registered at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Odense University Hospital (OUH) March 9-March 17 2020, and all hospitalised patients at OUH March 10-April 21 2020. To identify associations between C q -values and a) hospital admission and b) a severe outcome, logistic regression analyses were used to compute odds ratios (OR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI), adjusting for confounding factors (aOR). Results We included 87 non-hospitalised and 82 hospitalised patients. The median baseline C q -value was 25.5 (interquartile range 22.3–29.0). We found a significant association between increasing C q -value and hospital-admission in univariate analysis (OR 1.11, 95% CI 1.04–1.19). However, this was due to an association between time from symptom onset to testing and C q -values, and no association was found in the adjusted analysis (aOR 1.08, 95% CI 0.94–1.23). In hospitalised patients, a significant association between lower C q -values and higher risk of severe disease was found (aOR 0.89, 95% CI 0.81–0.98), independent of timing of testing. Conclusions SARS-CoV-2 PCR C q -values in outpatients correlated with time after symptom onset, but was not a predictor of hospitalisation. However, in hospitalised patients lower C q -values were associated with higher risk of severe disease.
【초록키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, Coronavirus disease 2019, coronavirus, Infectious diseases, disease severity, outcome, prospective cohort study, severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus, airway, polymerase chain reaction, PCR, Viral load, Patient, Adjusted analysis, Logistic regression, Hospitalised patients, Hospital admission, outpatients, university, quantification, hospitalisation, predict, association, Outpatient, Analysis, Odds ratio, severe disease, SARS-CoV-2 PCR, independent of, Chain Reaction, confidence, symptom onset, interquartile range, acute respiratory syndrome, Confidence intervals, higher risk, 95% CI, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, Adult patients, PCR positive, SARS-CoV-2 viral load, Odds ratios, Registered, confounding factors, Logistic regression analyses, Department, Univariate analysis, surrogate, independent, polymerase chain, Result, identify, performed, median, were used, correlated, hospitalised patient, interval, baseline, confounding factor, non-hospitalised, timing of testing, 【제목키워드】 Outpatient, hospitalised patient,