Retrospective analysis on the clinical characteristics of patients who were reinfected with the Corona Virus in 2019.

Dong, Yan; Huang, Hanlin; Yang, Jun; Yang, Liyuan

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore the clinical characteristics of 742 patients with re-current Corona Virus Disease in 2019 (COVID-19), so as to provide relevant evidence for clinical diagnosis and treatment of re-infected patients. METHODS Altogether 742 discharged COVID-19 patients were analyzed retrospectively and were divided into re-infected patients (n=60) and non-re-infected patients (n=682) according to whether they became nucleic acid positive again after discharge. The time form leaving the hospital to re-infection and the time form the first nucleic acid negative test results to being re-infected were recorded. The clinical characteristics of the two groups were compared when they were admitted to the hospital. Logistic regression analysis was carried out on disease indicators with statistical differences between the two groups. RESULTS Compared with non-re-infected patients, there were statistical differences in age, contact history, fatigue, chills, nasal congestion and runny nose, lung CT observations, clinical classification and lymphocyte count of re-infected patients (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that nasal congestion and a runny nose, a lymphocyte count less than 0.93×109 cells/L, and age ≥65 years were the risk factors of being re-infected. The ROC curve showed that the cut-off value of lymphocyte count was 0.847×109 cells/L, and the AUC of predicted re-infection was 0.867. CONCLUSION The symptoms of nasal congestion and runny nose, lymphocyte count less than 0.93×109 cells/L and, aged more than 65 years are the risk factors for the recurrent positive rates for COVID-19 patients, and lymphocyte count has certain clinical value in predicting recurrent patients.