Epidemiological Significance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA Dynamic in Naso-Pharyngeal Swabs

oleh: Paolo Calistri, Maria Luisa Danzetta, Laura Amato, Francesca Cito, Alessandra Di Giuseppe, Valentina Zenobio, Daniela Morelli, Ilaria Puglia, Marialuigia Caporale, Silvia Scialabba, Giovanni Savini, Giacomo Migliorati, Nicola D’Alterio, Alessio Lorusso

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2021-06-01

Deskripsi

From 16 March to 15 December 2020, 132,357 naso-pharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs were collected in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo Region, Italy, and tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA by a commercially available molecular assay. A total of 12,880 swabs resulted positive. For 8212 positive patients (4.150 women and 4.062 men) the median age was statistically different between women (median: 49.55 ± 23.9 of SD) and men (median: 48.35 ± 23.5 of SD) while no differences were found in the comparison between the cycle threshold for the N protein-encoding gene (C<i><sub>T</sub></i> N) median values and gender. Differences were observed in the C<i><sub>T</sub></i> N gene median values of swabs collected from March to September as well as in the pairwise comparison between September and October and between November and December. The C<i><sub>T</sub></i> N gene median values observed in specific periods characterizing the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in 2020 were also compared with the incidence of COVID-19 cases; a strong inverse correlation was highlighted (Pearson correlation coefficient = −0.978). Our findings confirm the usefulness of the C<i><sub>T</sub></i> N values as an indirect detection parameter to monitor viral loads in the population.