Incidence, Risk Factors and Clinical Impact of Sars-Cov-2 Prolonged Viral Shedding in Patients Diagnosed with Hematologic Malignancies

Patients with hematologic malignancies (HM) infected by SARS-CoV-2 present a higher risk of prolonged viral shedding, severe infection and mortality. However, data regarding clinical outcomes and viral evolution of prolonged COVID-19 in HM are still scarce. Our aim was to describe the incidence, risk factors, clinical outcomes and viral evolution of the protracted SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with HM. We collected clinical data and respiratory samples of patients with HM who consulted at Vall d´Hebron Universitary Hospital and were diagnosed with a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between March 2020 and March 2023. Prolonged COVID-19 was defined as a positive real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) with a cycle threshold (Ct) 2 previous lines of therapy) (OR 3.1; p=0.02), and severe/critical acute COVID-19 (OR 7.4; p=