Delayed SARS-CoV-2 Clearance in Patients with Obesity

Xiujun Zhang; Bin Lin; Gang Yang; Longgen Liu; Jianchun Lu; Zhaohui Lu; Yuan Xue

doi:10.2147/IDR.S319029

Delayed SARS-CoV-2 Clearance in Patients with Obesity

Infect Drug Resist. 2021 Jul 22:14:2823-2827. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S319029. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xiujun Zhang^{1

2}, Bin Lin³, Gang Yang⁴, Longgen Liu^{1

2}, Jianchun Lu^{1

2}, Zhaohui Lu⁴, Yuan Xue^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Hepatology, The Third People's Hospital of Changzhou, Changzhou, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Liver Diseases, The Third People's Hospital of Changzhou, Changzhou, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Infectious Diseases, The First People's Hospital of Jintan, Changzhou, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Respiratory Diseases, The Second People's Hospital of Wuhu, Wuhu, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between obesity and virus persistence in patients with COVID-19.

Design and methods: A total of 57 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were admitted to two clinical centers, and data were analyzed retrospectively. Among them, 18 patients with body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m² were diagnosed with obesity, and dynamics of viral replication were compared.

Results: Eighteen patients were diagnosed with obesity. The correlations between BMI and white blood cell, C-reactive protein, and cycle threshold (Ct) values of ORF1ab were not significant (all P > 0.05). On day 7 after admission, virus clearance was achieved in 13 (33.3%) patients with BMI < 25 kg/m² and 5 (27.8%) patients with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² (χ² = 0.176, P =0.68). On day 14, the RNA tests were negative in 37 (94.9%) patients with BMI < 25 kg/m² and 13 (72.2%) patients with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² (χ² = 5.865, P = 0.03). Multivariable analysis showed that only BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² (P = 0.02) was the independent risk factor for virus clearance on day 14.

Conclusion: Obesity may affect the clearance of SARS-CoV-2, and BMI should be assessed in patients with COVID-19, although they are not seriously ill.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV2; body mass index; obesity; virus clearance.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20180183) and the Science and Technology Project of Jintan (KJ201925).