The correlation Between Viral Clearance and Biochemical Outcomes of 94 Discharged Patients with COVID-19 Infection

Abstract Objective This study aims to evaluate the relationships between viral clearance and blood biochemical index of 94 discharged patients with COVID-19 infection in Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital, enrolled from Jan 5 to Feb 13, 2020.Methods The clinical, and laboratory findings were extracted from the electronic medical records of the patients. The data were analysed and reviewed by a trained team of physicians. Information on clinical symptoms and signs, medical treatment, virus clearance and laboratory parameters including interleukin 6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were collected.Results COVID-19 mRNA clearance ratio was identified significantly correlated with the decline of serum creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels. Furthermore, COVID-19 mRNA clearance time was positively correlated with the length of hospital stay in patients treated with either IFN-α + lopinavir/ritonavir or IFN-α + lopinavir/ritonavir+ ribavirin.Conclusions Therapeutic regimen of IFN-α+lopinavir/ritonavir and IFN-α + lopinavir/ritonavir + ribavirin regimens might be beneficial for treatment of COVID-19. Serum LDH or CK decline may predict a favorable response to treatment of COVID-19 infection.