SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia with a higher nasopharyngeal viral load is strongly associated with disease severity and mortality in patients with COVID-19

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the frequency of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in serum and its association with the clinical severity of COVID-19. This retrospective cohort study performed at Toyama University Hospital included consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19. The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia and the strength of its association with clinical severity variables were examined. Fifty-six patients were included in this study. RNAemia was detected in 19.6% (11/56) patients on admission, and subsequently in 1.0% (1/25), 50.0% (6/12), and 100.0% (4/4) moderate, severe, and critically ill patients, respectively. Patients with RNAemia required more frequent oxygen supplementation (90.0% vs. 13.3%), ICU admission (81.8% vs. 6.7%), and invasive mechanical ventilation (27.3% vs. 0.0%). Among patients with RNAemia, the median viral loads of nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs that were collected around the same time as the serum sample were significantly higher in critically ill (5.4 log₁₀ copies/μl; interquartile range [IQR]: 4.2-6.3) than in moderate-severe cases (2.6 log₁₀ copies/μl; [IQR: 1.1-4.5]; p = 0.030) and were significantly higher in nonsurvivors (6.2 log₁₀ copies/μl [IQR: 6.0-6.5]) than in survivors (3.9 log₁₀ copies/μl [IQR: 1.6-4.6]; p = 0.045). This study demonstrated a relatively high proportion of SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia and an association between RNAemia and clinical severity. Moreover, among the patients with RNAemia, the viral loads of NP swabs were correlated with disease severity and mortality, suggesting the potential utility of combining serum testing with NP tests as a prognostic indicator for COVID-19, with higher quality than each separate test.

Keywords: COVID-19; RNAemia; SARS-CoV-2; mortality; nasopharyngeal viral load; severity.

Figure 1

Proportion of patients with detectable RNAemia stratified by severity