Utilization of Cycle Threshold Values of RTPCR SARS-Cov-2 Among Admitted Patients in a Public Hospital

ABSTRACT Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) was caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and not just affected the Philippines but also globally. Data on real-time PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values were accessible in the healthcare facility and previous studies did not support its direct clinical significance on patients' management. The aim of this study was to investigate the RT-PCR Ct values of admitted COVID-19 confirmed patients in the epidemiologic context from April 2021 to November 2021. A total of 1,245 were tested and out of the 1,038 confirmed COVID-19 admitted patients, 579 (55.78%) were females and 459 were males (44.22%). There were 4 genes detected, namely: N, E, ORF1ab and RdRP genes, and the majority was N gene 925 (88.94%) while the least detected was 203 E gene of SARS-CoV-2. This study described the utilization of five (5) different COVID-19 test kits. Comparing the Ct values between the male and female groups, this study showed no significant differences. To compare between the different age groups and the three classifications of CT values was shown in Table 6. For the N gene, the current study showed a significant difference of CT value <25 among 0-17 years old vs 46-60 years old (p=0.00054), and among 0-17 years old vs >61 (senior citizens) years old group (p=0.00945). Moreover, a significant difference was observed for CT value >30 among 0-17 years vs 18-45 years old (p=0.00411) and among 0-17 years old vs >61 years old group (p=0.00025). CT values for the ORF gene showed significant differences. CT value <25 showed significant differences among 0-17 years versus 45-60 years old (p=0.00907) and 0-17 years versus >60 years old (p=0.04298). Moreover, CT value >30 showed significant differences among 0-17 years versus 46-60 years old (p=0.02344) and 0-17 years versus >60 years old (p=0.3411). Comparing the mean CT values of two consecutive months from April to November, this study showed a significant difference between April and May (p value= 0.0004), August and September (p value= 0.0212), and September and October (p value= 0.002). There was no significant difference with the following months: May and June, June and July, July and August, and October and November (Table 9). Keywords: utilization, cycle threshold values, RT-PCR SARS-Cov-2, COVID-19, cross-sectional study, admitted COVID-19 confirmed patients