Abstract

Comorbidities are important for the disease outcome of COVID-19, however, which underlying diseases that contribute the most to aggravate the conditions of COVID-19 patients are still unclear. Viral clearance is the most important laboratory test for defining the recovery of COVID-19 infections. To better understand which underlying diseases that are risk factors for delaying the viral clearance, we retrospectively analyzed 161 COVID-19 clinical cases in the Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China between January 5 and March 13, 2020. The demographic, clinical and laboratory data, as well as patient treatment records were collected. Univariable and multivariable analysis were performed to explore the association between delayed viral clearance and other factors by using logistic regression. Survival analyses by Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression modeling were employed to identify factors negatively influencing the viral clearance negatively. We found that hypertension and intravenous immunoglobulin adversely affected the time of viral RNA shedding. Hypertension was the most important risk factor to delay the SARS-CoV-2 virus clearance, however, the use of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors(ACEI)/Angiotensin Receptor Blockers(ARB) did not shorten the time for virus clearance in these hypertensive patients' virus clearance. We conclude that patients having hypertension and intravenous immunoglobulin may delay the viral clearance in COVID-19 patients.

Keywords

COVID-19; hypertension; risk factors; SARS-CoV-2; viral clearance

Published in

The journal of clinical hypertension
2021, Volume: 23, number: 8, pages: 1483-1489
Publisher: WILEY

SLU Authors

• Lindahl, Johanna

  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
  • Uppsala University

Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages


UKÄ Subject classification

Infectious Medicine


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jch.14308

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/113024