[Comparison of the clinical characteristics between RNA positive and negative patients clinically diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019]

Objective: To raise awareness about 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) and reduce missed diagnosis rate and misdiagnosis rate by comparing the clinical characteristics between RNA positive and negative patients clinically diagnosed with NCP. Methods: From January 2020 to February 2020, 54 patients who were newly diagnosed with NCP in Wuhan Fourth Hospital were included in this study. RT-PCR method was used to measure the level of 2019-nCov RNA in pharyngeal swab samples of these patients. The patients were divided into RNA positive and negative group, and the differences of clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics were compared. Results: There were 31 RNA of 2019-nCov positive cases, and 23 negative cases. Common clinical symptoms of two groups were fever (80.64% vs. 86.96%) , chills (61.29% vs. 52.17%) , cough (80.64% vs. 95.65%) , fatigue (61.30% vs. 56.52%) , chest distress (77.42% vs.73.91%) . Some other symptoms were headache, myalgia, dyspnea, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. The laboratory and radiological characteristics of two groups mainly were lymphopenia, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, increased C-reactive protein, increased lactate dehydrogenase, decreased oxygenation index, normal white blood cell count and bilateral chest CT involvement. There was no statistically significant difference in other clinical characteristics except for dyspnea between two groups. Conclusions: RNA positive and negative NCP patients shared similar clinical symptoms, while RNA positive NCP patients tended to have dyspnea. Therefore, we should improve the understanding of NCP to prevent missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis; In addition, more rapid and accurate NCP diagnostic approaches should be further developed.