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. 2020 Oct;92(10):2004-2010.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.25930. Epub 2020 May 7.

Characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) confirmed using an IgM-IgG antibody test

Jiajia Xie  1 , Chengchao Ding  1 , Jing Li  1 , Yulan Wang  1 , Hui Guo  2 , Zhaohui Lu  1 , Jinquan Wang  1 , Changcheng Zheng  1 , Tengchuan Jin  3 , Yong Gao  1 , Hongliang He  1
Affiliations

Characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) confirmed using an IgM-IgG antibody test

Jiajia Xie et al. J Med Virol. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by a novel betacoronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly developed into a pandemic since it was first reported in December 2019. Nucleic acid testing is the standard method for the diagnosis of viral infections. However, this method reportedly has a low positivity rate. To increase the sensitivity of COVID-19 diagnoses, we developed an IgM-IgG combined assay and tested it in patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection. In total, 56 patients were enrolled in this study and SARS-CoV-2 was detected by using both IgM-IgG antibody and nucleic acid tests. Clinical and laboratory data were collected and analyzed. Our findings suggest that patients who develop severe illness might experience longer virus exposure times and develop a more severe inflammatory response. The IgM-IgG test is an accurate and sensitive diagnostic method. A combination of nucleic acid and IgM-IgG testing is a more sensitive and accurate approach for diagnosis and early treatment of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; IgG; IgM; SARS-CoV-2; diagnosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

All the authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Differences in laboratory findings between severe and nonsevere groups (A) NEU and LYM cell counts, (B) percentage of NEU and LYM. Data are presented as the median (interquartile range [IQR]) and were analyzed using Mann‐Whitney test. All statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism 8.3 (**P < .005, ***P < .001, ****P < .0001). P < .05 was considered statistically significant. LYM%, lymphocyte percentage; NEU%, neutrophil percentage
Figure 2
Figure 2
Analysis of IgM‐IgG findings in severe and nonsevere groups. A, Kinetic analysis of IgM‐IgG antibodies in severe and nonsevere groups; B, differences in total IgM levels between severe and nonsevere groups; C, differences in total IgG levels between severe and nonsevere groups; and D, correlation between IgM and NEU% in patients in the severe group. Antibody concentration was presented as the geometric mean (SD) and analyzed using an unpaired t test. The correlation of IgM‐IgG with hematological profiles was analyzed using Pearson correlation. All statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism 8.3 (****P < .0001). P < .05 was considered statistically significant. NEU%, neutrophil percentage; SD, standard deviation
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