LDH, CRP and ALB predict nucleic acid turn negative within 14 days in symptomatic patients with COVID-19

Liu, Gaoli; Zhang, Bicheng; Zhang, Shaowen; Hu, Haifeng; Liu, TingTing

AIMS: To search for biochemical indicators that can identify symptomatic patients with COVID-19 whose nucleic acid could turn negative within 14 days, and assess the prognostic value of these biochemical indicators in patients with COVID-19. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We collected the clinical data of patients with COVID-19 admitted to our hospital, by using logistic regression analysis and AUC curves, explored the relationship between biochemical indicators and nucleic acid positive duration, the severity of COVID-19, and hospital stay respectively. RESULTS: A total of two hundred and thirty-three patients with COVID-19 were enrolled in the study. We found patients whose nucleic acid turned negative within 14 days had lower LDH, CRP and higher ALB (P < 0.05). ROC curve results indicated that lower LDH, TP, CRP and higher ALB predicted the nucleic acid of patients turned negative within 14 days with statistical significance(P < 0.05), AST, LDH, CRP and PCT predicted the severe COVID-19 with statistical significance, and CRP predicted hospital stay >31days with statistical significance (P < 0.05). After verification, the probability of nucleic acid turning negative within 14 days in patients with low LDH (<256 U/L), CRP (<44.5 mg/L) and high ALB (>35.8 g/L) was about 4 times higher than that in patients with high LDH, CRP and low ALB (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: LDH, CRP and ALB are useful prognostic marker for predicting nucleic acid turn negative within 14 days in symptomatic patients with COVID-19.