Detectable 2019-nCoV viral RNA in blood is a strong indicator for the further clinical severity.

Emerging microbes & infections 2020

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The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection caused pneumonia. we retrospectively analyzed the virus presence in the pharyngeal swab, blood, and the anal swab detected by real-time PCR in the clinical lab. Unexpectedly, the 2109-nCoV RNA was readily detected in the blood (6 of 57 patients) and the anal swabs (11 of 28 patients). Importantly, all of the 6 patients with detectable viral RNA in the blood cohort progressed to severe symptom stage, indicating a strong correlation of serum viral RNA with the disease severity (p-value = 0.0001). Meanwhile, 8 of the 11 patients with annal swab virus-positive was in severe clinical stage. However, the concentration of viral RNA in the anal swab (Ct value = 24 + 39) was higher than in the blood (Ct value = 34 + 39) from patient 2, suggesting that the virus might replicate in the digestive tract. Altogether, our results confirmed the presence of virus RNA in extra-pulmonary sites.

Citation

Weilie Chen, Yun Lan, Xiaozhen Yuan, Xilong Deng, Yueping Li, Xiaoli Cai, Liya Li, Ruiying He, Yizhou Tan, Xizi Deng, Ming Gao, Guofang Tang, Lingzhai Zhao, Jinlin Wang, Qinghong Fan, Chunyan Wen, Yuwei Tong, Yangbo Tang, Fengyu Hu, Feng Li, Xiaoping Tang. Detectable 2019-nCoV viral RNA in blood is a strong indicator for the further clinical severity. Emerging microbes & infections. 2020;9(1):469-473