Clinical characteristics of participants in the oral and stool discovery cohort
| Clinical indexes | Tongue-coating sample of discovery cohort (n=148) | P value | Faecal sample of discovery cohort (n=72) | P value | ||
| Healthy controls (n=100) | Confirmed patients (n=48) | Healthy controls (n=48) | Confirmed patients (n=24) | |||
| Age (years) | 44.88±11.35 | 48.40±13.90 | 0.088 | 48.52±6.50 | 48.04±10.24 | 0.836 |
| Sex (female/male) | 63/37 | 28/20 | 0.585 | 23/25 | 10/14 | 0.616 |
| Comorbidities | 11 (22.9%) | 4 (16.7%) | ||||
| Confirmed patient or Wuhan exposure | 38 (79.2%) | 18 (75%) | ||||
| Symptoms at admission | ||||||
| Fever | 32 (66.7%) | 21 (87.5%) | ||||
| Cough | 15 (31.25%) | 8 (33.3%) | ||||
| Sputum | 5 (10.4%) | 3 (12.5%) | ||||
| Headache | 3 (6.25%) | 3 (12.5%) | ||||
| Fatigue | 6 (12.5%) | 5 (20.8%) | ||||
| Laboratory results | ||||||
| White blood cells | 6.09±1.53 | 5.32±1.95 | 0.003 | 5.83±1.39 | 4.36±1.58 | <0.0001 |
| Neutrophils | 3.56±1.17 | 4.26±2.04 | 0.088 | 3.32±1.05 | 3.68±2.03 | 0.962 |
| Lymphocytes | 1.95±0.47 | 1.77±2.03 | <0.0001 | 1.92±0.52 | 1.32±0.52 | <0.0001 |
| Blood platelet | 234.26±49.33 | 191.42±75.22 | <0.0001 | 226.90±50.80 | 174.42±60.71 | <0.0001 |
| Haemoglobin | 143.43±17.25 | 141.65±34.84 | 0.026 | 142.54±13.93 | 137.08±20.54 | 0.249 |
| Alanine aminotransferase | 22.54±21.31 | 23.89±14.06 | 0.115 | 22.90±16.56 | 25.05±14.87 | 0.307 |
| Aspartate aminotransferase | 22.57±11.23 | 25.29±10.47 | 0.010 | 21.67±7.83 | 26.50±10.46 | 0.009 |
| Total bilirubin | 12.70±5.59 | 13.14±8.45 | 0.400 | 11.53±5.02 | 10.47±6.35 | 0.120 |
| Serum creatinine | 71.15±14.80 | 67.42±16.50 | 0.123 | 68.08±11.89 | 68.33±16.99 | 0.583 |
Continuous variables are presented as the means (SD) or medians (IQR). Categorical variables are presented as percentages. Differences between subjects with COVID-19 (n=48, n=24) and healthy controls (n=100, n=48) were compared by using Student’s t-test for normal continuous variables, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test for non-normal continuous variables and the χ2 test or Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables. Statistical significance was defined by p<0.05 (two-tailed). Comorbidities included diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, malignant tumour and chronic liver disease (online supplemental table S1).