Huang KX, He C, Yang YL, Huang D, Jiang ZX, Li BG, Liu H. Positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay results in patients recovered from COVID-19: Report of two cases. World J Clin Cases 2021; 9(12): 2816-2822 [PMID: 33969064 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i12.2816]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Heng Liu, MD, PhD, Doctor, Professor, Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, No. 149 Dalian Road, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China. zmcliuh@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Infectious Diseases
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Apr 26, 2021; 9(12): 2816-2822 Published online Apr 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i12.2816
Positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay results in patients recovered from COVID-19: Report of two cases
Ke-Xin Huang, Cheng He, Yan-Li Yang, Di Huang, Zhi-Xia Jiang, Bang-Guo Li, Heng Liu
Ke-Xin Huang, Cheng He, Yan-Li Yang, Bang-Guo Li, Heng Liu, Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China
Di Huang, Zhi-Xia Jiang, Department of Nursing, Guizhou Jiangjunshan Hospital, Guiyang 563000, Guizhou Province, China
Author contributions: Liu H and Li BG designed the experiments; Huang KX, He C, Yang YL, and Huang D collected the imaging and clinical data; Huang KX and Yang YL analyzed the data; Huang KX wrote the manuscript; Li BG revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content; Liu H and Li BG revised the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the manuscript.
Informed consent statement: This study was approved by the institutional review board of the Guizhou Jiangjunshan Hospital. The study was also approved by the medical ethics committee and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Both patients provided written informed consent prior to participation in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Heng Liu, MD, PhD, Doctor, Professor, Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, No. 149 Dalian Road, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou Province, China. zmcliuh@163.com
Received: September 14, 2020 Peer-review started: September 14, 2020 First decision: December 24, 2020 Revised: January 2, 2021 Accepted: February 26, 2021 Article in press: February 26, 2021 Published online: April 26, 2021 Processing time: 213 Days and 1.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread around the globe. On February 28, 2020, the World Health Organization adjusted the risk of spread and impact of COVID-19 to “very high” at the global level. Studies have mainly focused on the etiology, epidemiology, and treatment of COVID-19 to limit further spread and the negative impact of the disease, while less attention has been devoted to the follow-up and reexamination of patients who recovered from COVID-19 or were released from quarantine.
CASE SUMMARY
This study reports two cases where patients who had negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results and met the criteria for discharge subsequently had positive RT-PCR test results. The clinical manifestations and computed tomography (CT) findings of these patients were examined. The conversion of RT-PCR test results in these two patients may be related to false-negative and false-positive outcomes of the test. CT images helped track improvement of pulmonary lesions.
CONCLUSION
The timing of discharge of COVID-19 patients should be determined by comprehensive analysis of CT images and RT-PCR test results.
Core Tip: Current research on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mainly focuses on limiting further spread and the negative impact of the disease, while less attention has been devoted to the follow-up and reexamination of patients who have recovered from COVID-19. We present two cases of COVID-19 that recovered from the disease but tested positive again after discharge. This reminds us to be vigilant about false-negative and false-positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction results. Once the patient is discharged, we should focus on his/her follow-up, isolation, and retesting.
