Symptoms associated with nucleic acid turning-negative-time in COVID-19 patients?

Acupunct Herb Med. 2022 Sep;2(3):207-209. doi: 10.1097/HM9.0000000000000037. Epub 2022 Dec 8.

Abstract

To explore on the association between nucleic acid turning-negative-time and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) symptoms in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with the Omicron variant.

Method: For this retrospective cross-sectional study, we enrolled 189 patients with COVID-19 (age 20-90 years) were included. multiple linear regression models were used to investigate the TCM symptoms affecting the nucleic acid turning-negative-time of COVID-19 patients, during the process of data analysis, taking with nucleic acid turning-negative-time as the dependent variable, and TCM symptoms as independent variables, and at the same time, sex, age, hypertension, diabetes, and coronary heart disease were as confounding variables.

Results: The study found that the most common TCM symptoms of COVID-19 patients with Omicron were cough, dry throat, expectoration, fever, sore throat, pharyngeal itching, running nose, and nasal congestion. Regression analysis showed that the fit regressive equation showed a significant difference (F = 4.286, P < 0.001), R = 0.400, the adjusted R 2 = 0.123, and three variables in the regression equation showed significant difference (P < 0. 05). The results showed that nucleic acid turning-negative-time was mostly related to constipation, fever, and expectoration. If the patients had the symptoms of constipation, fever, and expectoration; that is, if patients showed these symptoms, the turning-negative-time of nucleic acid in patients with Omicron will be prolonged.

Conclusions: Treatment based on symptoms for patients with constipation, fever, and expectoration may have important clinical significance for the COVID-19 patients with Omicron.

Keywords: COVID-19; Omicron; TCM symptoms; nucleic acid turning-negative-time.