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Abstract

To detect the presence of viral RNA in conjunctival swabs of patients with positive naso-pharyngeal swabs for Covid-19, Cross sectional study in Covid Admission Unit & EYE UNIT 1, Lahore General Hospital, from November 2020 to April 2021 (06 months).Approval was taken from Ethical Review Board of LGH by obtained from all patients we have taken Patients of both gender from the age 18 years & above. Positive PCR test from nasopharyngeal swab for Covid-19 criteria based on Patients mechanical ventilation we have taken patients topical eye drugs conjunctival swabs were collected from both eyes by the same ophthalmologist using PPE and done with LGH laboratory performed the analysis for all swabs in the statistical analysis data was entered and analyzed using SPSS v25.0 and Chi-Square test was applied to see the correlation between Conj. swabs and Serum markers and resulted A p-value �0.05 was considered significant .Conjunctive swabs collected from 66 patients that is 132 eyes and Covid-19 RNA was detected in 06 patients (9.1%), some other results Conjunctiva swabs Positive with Occular Symptoms = 50% and Without Ocular Symptom = 6% considering P-Value (Chi-Square = 0.002) Highly Significant. Final Conclusions would be viral RNA for Covid-19 can be detected in app. 9% of Conj. Swabs and Positive Conj. swab is strongly associated with the presence of occular symptoms and such patients often have normal values of serum markers like D-Dimer, Ferritin, CRP & LDH.

Biography

Ghazala Rubi is working in Molecular Genetics Research Lab. this is the Central Research Lab of Post Graduate Medical Institute, Lahore General Hospital. This Lab caters all facilities of Molecular & Genetics to all Researchers of Post Graduate Medical Institute and post graduates research Projects.