Affiliation:
1. Virology Department, AP‐HP Hôpital Saint‐Louis Paris France
2. Emergency Department, Hôpital Saint Louis Assistance Publique‐Hôpitaux de Paris Paris France
3. Inserm U976, INSIGHT Team Université Paris Cité Paris France
4. Medical Intensive Care Unit Famirea Study Group Paris France
5. UMR 1153 CRESS, Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology Research Team Université Paris Cité Paris France
Abstract
AbstractAccurate prediction of COVID‐19 severity remains a challenge. Torque teno virus (TTV), recognized as a surrogate marker of functional immunity in solid organ transplant recipients, holds the potential for assessing infection outcomes. We investigated whether quantifying TTV in nasopharyngeal samples upon emergency department (ED) admission could serve as an early predictor of COVID‐19 severity. Retrospective single‐center study in the ED of Saint‐Louis Hospital in Paris, France. TTV DNA was quantified in nasopharyngeal swab samples collected for SARS‐CoV‐2 testing. Among 295 SARS‐CoV‐2 infected patients, 92 returned home, 160 were admitted to medical wards, and 43 to the intensive care unit (ICU). Elevated TTV loads were observed in ICU patients (median: 3.02 log copies/mL, interquartile range [IQR]: 2.215–3.825), exceeding those in discharged (2.215, [0; 2.962]) or hospitalized patients (2.24, [0; 3.29]) (p = 0.006). Multivariate analysis identified diabetes, obesity, hepatitis, fever, dyspnea, oxygen requirement, and TTV load as predictors of ICU admission. A 2.91 log10 copies/mL TTV threshold independently predicted ICU admission. Nasopharyngeal TTV quantification in SARS‐CoV‐2 infected patients is linked to the likelihood of ICU admission and might reflect respiratory immunosuppression.
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Virology