{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0277301","title":"COVID-19 and the eye: Systemic and laboratory risk factors for retinopathy and detection of tear film SARS-CoV-2 RNA with a triplex RT-PCR assay","abstract":"PURPOSE: To assess hospitalized COVID-19 inpatients for the prevalence of retinopathy and tear film SARS-CoV-2 RNA, and associated risk factors for their detection. METHODS: Hospitalized COVID-19 patients underwent dilated ophthalmic examination and fundus photography. Conjunctival swabs were assessed for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR via a triple target assay. We assessed the relationships of retinopathy with clinical outcomes, systemic risk factors and laboratory data. RESULTS: The median age was 59.5 years and 29 (48%) were female. Retinopathy associated with COVID-19 was observed in 12 of 60 patients (20%). The median age of patients with COVID-19 retinopathy was 51.5 compared to 62.5 years in individuals without retinopathy (p = 0.01). Median BMI was 34.3 in patients with retinopathy versus 30.9 in those without retinopathy (p = 0.04). Fifteen of 60 patients (25%) tested SARS-CoV-2 RNA-positive in their tear film without a relationship with timing of illness and hospitalization. The N2 gene was particularly sensitive with 18 of 19 eyes (94.7%) showing N2-positivity, including 2 patients with alpha variant-positivity (B.1.1.7). CONCLUSION: Retinopathy was observed in 20% of patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Patients with retinopathy were more likely to be younger and have higher BMI than hospitalized patients without retinopathy. Tear film SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 25% of patients. The relationship of obesity and age with retinopathy requires further investigation.","journal":"PLoS ONE","year":2022,"id":285660,"datarank":0.26876392038420827,"base_score":1.791759469228055,"endowment":1.791759469228055,"self_citation_contribution":0.26876392038420827,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.26876392038420827,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":5,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9621,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":964261,"name":"Tolulope Fashina","orcid":"0000-0001-9024-9202","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":349631,"name":"Victoria Stittleburg","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":964643,"name":"Casey Randleman","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":330186,"name":"Laura Ward","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":964644,"name":"Matt Regueiro","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":964645,"name":"David Krakow","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226153,"name":"Susanne L. Linderman","orcid":"0000-0003-3297-3774","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":542503,"name":"Carolyn Drews‐Botsch","orcid":"0000-0002-8763-7404","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226172,"name":"Rafi Ahmed","orcid":"0000-0002-9591-2621","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":168177,"name":"Jesse J. Waggoner","orcid":"0000-0002-0244-5957","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":250800,"name":"Steven Yeh","orcid":"0000-0002-5417-7771","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360927,"name":"Jessica G. Shantha","orcid":"0000-0002-4449-8598","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:29:44.944555Z","pmid":"36350841","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}