Clinical presentations according to SARS-CoV-2 Ct
Due to the limited laboratory capacity at the epidemic onset, most tests
were carried out on symptomatic patients and only occasionally on
asymptomatic ones. The latter were thus a minority and no difference was
observed in their prevalence (Tab.1).
Ct groups differed in terms of systemic inflammation (p=0.036),
gastrointestinal (p=0.042) and respiratory manifestations (p=0.060;
Fig.1). Specifically, A presented higher prevalence of inflammatory
systemic signs and symptoms and respiratory involvement compared to C
and a higher prevalence of gastrointestinal and respiratory involvement
compared to B (Fig.1).
As for single signs and symptoms, cough and dyspnoea differed among the
groups in their prevalence at the diagnosis (p<0.01 both;
Fig.1). More in details, patients in A suffered more frequently from
headache, asthenia/malaise, cough and dyspnoea compared with either B
and C (Fig.1). No significant difference was observed between B and C,
but for a higher frequency of arthromyalgia in B (Fig.1).
Linear Ct value inversely correlated with the number of signs and
symptoms reported at the diagnostic swab (ρ-0.23, p<0.01; see
Suppl.Fig.3).
At multivariate analysis (after adjusting for age, sex, number of
comorbidities and time from COVID-19 onset to the swab) lower SARS-CoV-2
Ct values were independently associated with a higher number of signs
and symptoms (linear regression p=0.022; Tab.3).