Background: The impact of COVID-19 has been devastating on a global scale. Our study aimed to identify factors in predicting prolonged negative conversion time (NCT) of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in mild/moderate COVID-19 patients.
Methods: The clinical features and treatment outcomes were retrospectively analyzed from 32 hospitalized mild/moderate COVID-19 patients. Then univariate and multivariate analysis were used to predict in the factors of prolonged NCT of SARS-CoV-2 RNA.
Results: The general clinical symptoms were cough (78.1%), fever (75%), diarrhea (68.8%), expectoration (56.3%), and nausea (37.5%). More than 40% of the patients had decreased erythrocyte, hemoglobin and leucocyte and 93.8% patients were detected in abnormalities of chest CT. The median NCT of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was 19.5 days (IQR: 14.25–25). Univariate analysis found fever, nausea, diarrhea and abnormalities in chest CTs were positively associated with prolonged NCT of viral RNA (P<0.05). The multivariate Cox proportional hazard model revealed that fever [Exp (B), 0.284; 95% CI, 0.114‑0.707; P＜0.05] and nausea [Exp (B), 0.257; 95%CI, 0.096‑0.689; P＜0.05] were two significant independent factors.
Conclusions: Fever, nausea, diarrhea and abnormalities in chest CT are potential factors for predicting prolonged NCT of viral RNA. Moreover, Fever and nausea were two significant independent factors in prolonged NCT of viral RNA in mild/moderate COVID-19 patients.