Clinical characteristics of hospitalized mild/moderate COVID-19 patients with a prolonged negative conversion time of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection

BACKGROUND: The impact of COVID-19 has been devastating on a global scale. The negative conversion time (NCT) of SARS-CoV-2 RNA is closely related to clinical manifestation and disease progression in COVID-19 patients. Our study aimed to predict factors associated with prolonged NCT of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in mild/moderate COVID-19 patients. METHODS: The clinical features, laboratory data and treatment outcomes of COVID-19 patients were retrospectively analyzed. Then univariate and multivariate analysis were used to screen out risk factors of influencing prolonged NCT of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. RESULTS: Thirty-two hospitalized mild/moderate COVID-19 patients were enrolled. The general clinical symptoms were cough (78.1%), fever (75%), diarrhea (68.8%), expectoration (56.3%), and nausea (37.5%). More than 40% of the patients had decreased erythrocyte, hemoglobin and leucocyte and 93.8% patients were detected in abnormalities of chest CT. The median NCT of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was 19.5 days (IQR: 14.25–25). Univariate analysis found fever, nausea, diarrhea and abnormalities in chest CTs were positively associated with prolonged NCT of viral RNA (P< 0.05). The multivariate Cox proportional hazard model revealed that fever [Exp (B), 0.284; 95% CI, 0.114–0.707; P<0.05] and nausea [Exp (B), 0.257; 95%CI, 0.096–0.689; P<0.05] were two significant independent factors. CONCLUSIONS: Fever and nausea were two significant independent factors in prolonged NCT of viral RNA in mild/moderate COVID-19 patients, which provided a useful references for disease progression and treatment of COVID-19. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-021-05851-z.