Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic Of Iran

en Relationship of Viral Load with the Laboratory Markers and Prognosis in COVID-19 Patients COVID 19 Original Research Original Research Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) viral load determined from the cycle threshold (CT) values may be a marker of disease severity and predict disease progression. Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between SARS-CoV-19 cycle thresholds or viral load, laboratory markers, and patient prognosis.    Methods: Patients who were admitted to Imam Reza Hospital at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences between March 2020 and March 2021 and had COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed at random were included in this cross-sectional study. Patients were randomly selected from those who tested positive on nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal reverse transcription-PCR samples. The inclusion criteria were all patients older than 16 years with positive COVID-19 PCR results. Samples with Ct values of ≤36 were considered positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Patients who did not have laboratory markers were excluded. We used SPSS Version 16 (Pearson correlation, analysis of variance, and logistic regression tests) to analyze the data. A P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.    Results: In our study, serum lactate dehydrogenase and aspartate aminotransferase were found to be laboratory biomarkers inversely correlated with COVID-19 Ct values, indicating higher viral load (r = -0.14; P = 0.024 and r = -0.12; P = 0.053, respectively). Also, the platelet count is lower in patients with higher viral loads (r = 0.18;  P < 0.001). However, we found no correlation between the viral load and some laboratory biomarkers such as ferritin, white blood cell and lymphocyte count, alanine transaminase, and c-reactive protein (P > 0.05). The patient’s length of hospital stay was not correlated with their viral load (P > 0.05).    Conclusion: The COVID-19 viral load has been linked to some laboratory indicators and may be used to predict patient death. These discoveries might help in the treatment of COVID-19 disease.   COVID-19, Biomarkers, Viral Load 544 548 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-3385-4&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Zahra Ataee ataeez@mums.ac.ir 200319475328460077983 200319475328460077983 No Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Ali Rahmani fard Rahmanifa931@mums.ac.ir 200319475328460077984 200319475328460077984 No Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Saeid Amel Jamehdar Ameljs@mums.ac.ir 200319475328460077985 200319475328460077985 No Antimicrobial Resistance Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Majid Khadem-Rezaiyan KhademRM@mums.ac.ir 200319475328460077986 200319475328460077986 No Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Maliheh Ziaee ziaee.m@gmu.ac.ir 200319475328460077987 200319475328460077987 Yes Department of Community Medicine, School of Medicine, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Gonabad University of Medical Sciences, Gonabad, Iran