15.6% of confirmed COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic

Objectives:
Which are the characteristics of asymptomatic infection in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)?

Study design:
This review article included 41 studies with a total of 50,155 patients with confirmed COVID-19.

10 included studies contain the number of pre-symptomatic patients, who were asymptomatic at screening point and developed symptoms during follow-up.

Results and conclusions:   
The investigators found the pooled percentage of asymptomatic infection was 15.6% [95% CI = 10.1% to 23.0%].

The investigators found the pooled percentage of pre-symptomatic infection among 180 initially asymptomatic patients was 48.9% [95% CI = 31.6 to 66.2%].

The investigators found the pooled proportion of asymptomatic infection among 1,152 COVID-19 children from 11 studies was 27.7% [95% CI = 16.4 to 42.7%], which was much higher than patients from all aged groups.

The investigators found abnormal CT features were common in asymptomatic COVID-19 infection.

The investigators found for 36 patients from 4 studies that CT results were available, 15 (41.7%) patients had bilateral involvement and 14 (38.9%) had unilateral involvement in CT results.

The investigators found reduced white blood cell count, increased lactate dehydrogenase, and increased C-reactive protein were also recorded.

The investigators concluded about 15.6% of confirmed COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic. Nearly half of the patients with no symptoms at detection time will develop symptoms later. Children are likely to have a higher proportion of asymptomatic infection than adults. Asymptomatic COVID-19 patients could have abnormal laboratory and radiational manifestations which can be used as screening strategies to identify asymptomatic infection.

Original title:
Proportion of asymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a systematic review and meta-analysis by He J, Guo Y, […], Zhang J.

Link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32691881/

Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on coronavirus right here.