Investigation of correlations between the occurrence of symptoms of the Post-COVID syndrome after SARS-CoV-2 infection, the cycle threshold in RT-PCR, age and hospitalisation

The coronavirus crisis has not only resulted in acute infections but also long-term consequences in the form of post-COVID syndrome. RT-PCR is the gold standard for detecting the pathogen and determining the viral load. The relationship between high viral load and post-COVID can provide interesting research approaches in the differentiation of other influencing factors. This study is concerned with investigating the correlation between typical symptoms of the post-COVID syndrome and the Ct value, age, specific symptom expression of two age groups, and hospitalisation. A questionnaire on disease-typical symptoms served as a measuring instrument, the data was then analysed using a Pearson correlation. No significant correlation (p<0.05) was found between the Ct value and the frequent incidence of post-COVID symptoms at p=0.25. There was also no significant correlation (p=0.47) between viral load and age. The investigation of specific symptoms showed a largely heterogeneous distribution in the age groups and a comparably higher hospitalisation rate from 65 onwards. In summary, the evaluation shows both a negative trend between viral load and symptoms of post-COVID syndrome and a positive trend between advancing age and symptoms. However, the data analysis did not show a significant correlation, most likely due to limiting factors in the study design and the willingness to participate. Nevertheless, this study is an instructive example and provides a number of potential research approaches.