Seroprevalence of immunoglobulin M and G antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in ophthalmic patients

Abstract

Using serological test to estimate the prevalence and infection potential of coronavirus disease 2019 in ocular diseases patients help understand the relationship between ocular diseases and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. We conducted a cross-sectional study assaying the IgG and IgM antibodies in 1331 individuals with ocular diseases by using a magnetic chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay kit, during the period from February 2020 to May 2020. In our study, the seroposivity in total ocular disease patients was 0.83% (11/1331). The patients with different ocular diseases including xerophthalmia, keratitis, conjunctival cyst, cataract, glaucoma, refractive error, strabismus and others had seroposivity of 2.94%, 12.5%, 25%, 4.41%, 2.63%, 1.6%, 2.22% and 0%, respectively. Among that, two ocular surface disease groups (keratitis and conjunctival cyst) had higher seroprevalence compared with others. All the participants were reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction negative for SARS-CoV-2 from throat swabs. Our study evaluated the seroprevalence in patients with different ocular diseases, which will help us understand the relationship between ocular disease and SARS-CoV-2 infection. Furthermore, the serological test for the presence of IgM and/or IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 might provide accurate estimate of the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with ocular diseases.