Journal of medical virology
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Correlations between serum hepatitus B virus (HBV) pregenomic RNA (pgRNA), hepatitus B surface antigen (HBsAg), and hepatitus B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) levels, and influencing factors of serum HBV pgRNA levels in Chinese chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients are rarely reported. This was a retrospective cohort study consisting of 204 outpatients with CHB. Serum levels of HBV pgRNA, HBsAg, and HBcrAg were quantitative measured in frozen blood samples. ⋯ Overall, serum HBV pgRNA strongly correlated with HBcrAg (r = 0.760, p < .001), and moderately correlated with HBV DNA (r = 0.663, p < .001) and HBsAg (r = 0.670, p < .001). As compared with HBsAg and HBV DNA, only HBcrAg showed stable correlation with serum HBV pgRNA both in HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative patients. Serum HBV pgRNA level differed between HBeAg-positive and HBeAg-negative patients; and it had better and more stable correlation with serum HBcrAg than serum HBV DNA and HBsAg, irrespective of HBeAg status.
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The implementation of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) may enhance the efficiency of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing, as RDTs are widely accessible and easy to use. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a diagnosis strategy based on a combination of antigen and immunoglobulin M (IgM) or immunoglobulin G (IgG) serological RDTs. Plasma and nasopharyngeal samples were collected between 14 March and 11 April 2020 at hospital admission from 45 patients with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed COVID-19 and 20 negative controls. ⋯ The combination of Ag and IgM/IgG RDTs enabled the detection of up to 84.0% of COVID-19 confirmed cases at hospital admission. Antigen and antibody-based RDTs showed suboptimal performances when used alone. However when used in combination, they are able to identify most COVID-19 patients admitted in an emergency department.
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During the current COVID pandemic, there is growing interest to identify subsets of the population that may be at a higher than average risk of infection. One such group includes people living with HIV.
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Observational Study
Clinical features and antibody response of patients from a COVID-19 treatment hospital in Wuhan, China.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly evolved into a global pandemic. A total of 1578 patients admitted into a newly built hospital specialized for COVID-19 treatment in Wuhan, China, were enrolled. Clinical features and the levels of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) immunoglobulin (Ig)M and IgG were analyzed. In total, 1532 patients (97.2%) were identified as laboratory-confirmed cases. Seventy-seven patients were identified as asymptomatic carriers (n = 64) or SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive before symptom onset (n = 13). ⋯ These patients had a higher proportion of critical illness during hospitalization (p < .001) and a longer hospital stay (p < .001) compared to patients with viral clearance after IgG detection. Coronary heart disease (odds ratio [OR], 1.89 [95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-3.24]; p = .020), and intensive care unit admission (OR, 2.47 [95% CI, 1.31-4.66]; p = .005) were independent risk factors associated with viral RNA shedding after IgG detection. Symptomatic patients produced more antibodies than asymptomatic patients. The patients who had SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding after developing IgG were more likely to be sicker patients.