ASSOCIATION OF INITIAL VIRAL LOAD IN SARS-CoV-2 PATIENTS WITH OUTCOME AND SYMPTOMS

Argyropoulos, Kimon V.; Serrano, Antonio; Hu, Jiyuan; Black, Margaret; Feng, Xiaojun; Shen, Guomiao; Call, Melissa; Kim, Min Jae; Lytle, Andrew; Belovarac, Brendan; Vougiouklakis, Theodore; Lin, Lawrence Hsu; Moran, Una; Heguy, Adriana; Troxel, Andrea; Snuderl, Matija; Osman, Iman; Cotzia, Paolo; Jour, George

The dynamics of viral load (VL) of the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and its association with different clinical parameters remain poorly characterized in the United States patient population. Herein we investigate associations between VL and parameters such as severity of symptoms, disposition (admission vs direct discharge), length of hospitalization, and admission to the intensive care unit, length of need for oxygen support and overall survival in a cohort of 205 patients from a tertiary care center in New York City. VL was determined using q-PCR and Log10 transformed for normalization. Univariate and multivariate regression models were used to test these associations. We found that diagnostic viral load is significantly lower in hospitalized patients than in patients not hospitalized (log10 VL = 3.3 vs.4.0; p=0.018) after adjusting for age, sex, race, BMI, and comorbidities. Higher VL was associated with shorter duration of the symptoms in all patients and hospitalized patients only and shorter hospital stay (coefficient =-2.02,-2.61, -2.18; p<0.001, p=0.002, p=0.013, respectively). No significant association was noted between VL, admission to ICU, length of oxygen support, and overall survival. Our findings suggest a higher shedding risk in less symptomatic patients; an important consideration for containment strategies in SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, we identify a novel association between viral load and history of cancer. Larger studies are warranted to validate our findings.