Objectives: The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been researched. However, the prevalence of repositivity by real-time PCR for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains unclear. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted involving 599 discharged patients with COVID-19 in a single medical centre. The clinical features of patients during their hospitalization and 14-day post-discharge quarantine were collected. Results: A total of 122 patients (20.4%) out of 599 patients retested positive after discharge. Specifically, 94 (15.7%) retested positive within 24 h of discharge, and another 28 patients (4.7%) were repositive on day 7 after discharge, although none showed any clinical symptomatic recurrence. Both repositives and non‑repositives have similar patterns of IgG and IgM. Notably, the length of hospitalization of non-repositive patients was longer than that of 24-h repositive patients and 7-day repositive patients. In addition, the length of hospitalization of 24-h repositive patients was shorter than that of 7-day repositive patients, indicating that the length of hospitalization was also a determinant of viral shedding. Conclusion: Our study provides further information for improving the management of recovered and discharged patients, and further studies should be performed to elucidate the infectiveness of individuals with prolonged or RNA repositivity.
【저자키워드】 antibody, Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Real-time PCR, Repositive, discharged patient, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, Coronavirus disease 2019, coronavirus, Hospitalization, Clinical characteristics, quarantine, viral shedding, discharged patients, severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus, discharge, Clinical features, RNA, Prevalence, Retrospective study, Real-time PCR, symptomatic, management, Patient, epidemiological, information, patients, clinical feature, IgG and IgM, determinant, acute respiratory syndrome, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, individual, positive, performed, collected, addition, conducted, provide, with COVID-19, 【제목키워드】 Isolation, RT-PCR test, COVID-19 patient, observation, discharged,