Three elderly asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected patients in ICU.

Feng Zhou,Xuan Gao,Ying Zhang,Ye Li

doi:10.3855/jidc.13405

Abstract

Previous studies on asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers indicated that asymptomatic infections always occurred in people in community or patients in general wards, prone to be young and middle aged people. Limited data are available for asymptomatic infections in critically ill patients in intensive care unit or elderly people. Here we reported three elderly asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infected patients in intensive care unit. These three elderly patients had negative CT images and 14 consecutive negative RT-PCR test results, with dynamic changes in IgG-IgM antibody levels without any clinical symptoms, which might be related to their weakened immune responses due to elder age (over 85 years old) and the history of hypertension. Therefore, combining nucleic acid RT-PCR and the IgM-IgG antibody test can provide more accurate SARS-CoV-2 infection diagnosis, especially for elderly asymptomatic patients.

Highlights

Previous studies on asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers indicated that asymptomatic infections always occurred in people in community or patients in general wards, prone to be young(< 15 years old) [1] and middle aged people (30 to 49 years old) [2]
Three hospitalized patients were treated in intensive care unit (ICU) at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China from Feb 12 to March 25, 2020
None of them reported a history of epidemiological exposure to COVID-19 before they admitted to ICU

Summary

Introduction

Introduction Previous studies on asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers indicated that asymptomatic infections always occurred in people in community or patients in general wards, prone to be young(< 15 years old) [1] and middle aged people (30 to 49 years old) [2]. Limited data are available for asymptomatic infections in critically ill patients in intensive care unit (ICU) or elderly people. We reported three elderly asymptomatic SARSCoV-2 infected patients in ICU. Methodology Three hospitalized patients were treated in ICU at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China from Feb 12 to March 25, 2020.

Results

Conclusion