McKay Brian, Ebell Mark, Billings Wesley Zane, Dale Ariella Perry, Shen Ye, Handel Andreas
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina, USA.
Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Oct 16;7(11):ofaa494. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa494. eCollection 2020 Nov.
Rapid point-of-care polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic tests generally provide a qualitative result of positive or negative only. Additional information about the relative viral load could be calculated. Such quantitative information might be useful for making treatment decisions.
We enrolled students at a university health center who presented with cough and 1 additional flu-like symptom from December 2016 to February 2017. Data were collected before, during, and 5 days after the clinic visit. All those enrolled in the study received a point-of-care PCR test (cobas Liat). For those patients that tested positive for influenza A, we investigated correlations between the relative viral load and measures of disease severity and recovery.
One hundred thirty-five students tested positive for influenza A. We found a positive correlation between viral load and body temperature. Time since symptom onset seemed to have a negative correlation but was not statistically significant. We did not find any correlations between viral load and overall symptom severity or outcomes related to recovery.
Although we found a correlation between relative viral load and body temperature, for our study population of young, overall healthy adults, we did not find that relative viral load provided additional information that could help in determining treatment and disease outcomes. It could be that viral load does provide useful additional information for other groups of patients, such as young children or older adults. Further studies on those populations are warranted.
即时聚合酶链反应（PCR）快速诊断测试通常仅提供阳性或阴性的定性结果。可以计算有关相对病毒载量的其他信息。此类定量信息可能有助于做出治疗决策。
我们招募了2016年12月至2017年2月期间在大学健康中心出现咳嗽及另外一种流感样症状的学生。在门诊就诊前、就诊期间及就诊后5天收集数据。所有纳入研究的人员均接受了即时PCR检测（cobas Liat）。对于甲型流感检测呈阳性的患者，我们调查了相对病毒载量与疾病严重程度及恢复指标之间的相关性。
135名学生甲型流感检测呈阳性。我们发现病毒载量与体温之间存在正相关。症状出现后的时间似乎呈负相关，但无统计学意义。我们未发现病毒载量与总体症状严重程度或恢复相关结局之间存在任何相关性。
尽管我们发现相对病毒载量与体温之间存在相关性，但对于我们研究中的年轻、总体健康的成年人人群，我们并未发现相对病毒载量能提供有助于确定治疗和疾病结局的额外信息。可能病毒载量确实能为其他患者群体（如幼儿或老年人）提供有用的额外信息。有必要对这些人群进行进一步研究。
