title: Epidemiological and clinical features of human coronavirus infections among different subsets of patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Epidemiological and clinical data of human coronaviruses (HCoVs) infections are restricted to span 1-3 years at most. We conducted a comprehensive 9-year study on HCoVs by analyzing 1137 respiratory samples from four subsets of patients (asymptomatic, general community, with comorbidities, and hospitalized) in São Paulo, Brazil.
  
  
  METHODS
  A pan-coronavirus RT-PCR screening assay was performed, followed by species-specific real-time RT-PCR monoplex assays.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Human coronaviruses were detected in 88 of 1137 (7.7%) of the samples. The most frequently detected HCoV species were NL63 (50.0%) and OC43 (27.3%). Patients with comorbidities presented the highest risk of acquiring coronavirus infection (odds ratio=4.17; 95% confidence interval=1.9-9.3), and children with heart diseases revealed a significant HCoV infection presence. Dyspnea was more associated with HCoV-229E infections (66.6%), and cyanosis was reported only in HCoV-OC43 infections. There were interseasonal differences in the detection frequencies, with HCoV-229E being predominant in the year 2004 (61.5%) and HCoV-NL63 (70.8%) in 2008.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data provide a novel insight into the epidemiology and clinical knowledge of HCoVs among different subsets of patients, revealing that these viruses may cause more than mild respiratory tract disease.
authors: Laboratory of Clinical Virology, Discipline of Infectology, Department of Medicine, Federal University of São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
authors: Tatiane K
authors: TK
authors: Cabeça
authors: Celso
authors: C
authors: Granato
authors: Nancy
authors: N
authors: Bellei
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017934:Coronavirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral
keywords: Clinical features; epidemiology; human coronaviruses; respiratory infection