Journal Article

Clinical characteristics of patients with 2019 coronavirus disease in a non-Wuhan area of Hubei Province, China: a retrospective study

Xu, Xuan-Xuan, Zhao, Xin-Ying, Tang, Yuan-Yan, Yang, Ai-Ying, Yin, Hai-Sen, Yu, Bao-Ping, Hu, Qin-Ming, Xiong, Tao, Huang, Zhi-Ping

2020

Overview

Background Since December 2019, the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has expanded to cause a worldwide outbreak that more than 600,000 people infected and tens of thousands died. To date, the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in the non-Wuhan areas of Hubei Province in China have not been described. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics and treatment progress of 91 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Jingzhou Central Hospital. Results Of the 91 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, 30 cases (33.0%) were severe and two patients (2.2%) died. The severe disease group tended to be older (50.5 vs. 42.0 years; p  = 0.049) and have more chronic disease (40% vs. 14.8%; p  = 0.009) relative to mild disease group. Only 73.6% of the patients were quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-positive on their first tests, while typical chest computed tomography images were obtained for each patient. The most common complaints were cough ( n  = 75; 82.4%), fever ( n  = 59; 64.8%), fatigue ( n  = 35; 38.5%), and diarrhea ( n  = 14; 15.4%). Non-respiratory injury was identified by elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase ( n  = 18; 19.8%), creatinine ( n  = 5; 5.5%), and creatine kinase ( n  = 14; 15.4%) in laboratory tests. Twenty-eight cases (30.8%) suffered non-respiratory injury, including 50% of the critically ill patients and 21.3% of the mild patients. Conclusions Overall, the mortality rate of patients in Jingzhou was lower than that of Wuhan. Importantly, we found liver, kidney, digestive tract, and heart injuries in COVID-19 cases besides respiratory problems. Combining chest computed tomography images with the qPCR analysis of throat swab samples can improve the accuracy of COVID-19 diagnosis.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Adult / Aspartate / Aspartate aminotransferase / Betacoronavirus / Care and treatment / Chest / China - epidemiology / Chronic diseases / Chronic illnesses / Computed tomography / Coronaviridae / Coronavirus infections / Coronavirus Infections - complications / Coronavirus Infections - diagnostic imaging / Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology / Coronavirus Infections - therapy / Coronaviruses / Cough / Cough - etiology / COVID-19 / Creatine / Creatine kinase / Creatinine / Diagnostic imaging / Diarrhea / Diarrhea - etiology / Disease characteristics / Disease Outbreaks / Fatalities / Fatigue - etiology / Female / Fever / Fever - etiology / Gastrointestinal tract / Health aspects / Humans / Infectious Diseases / Injuries / Internal Medicine / Kidneys / Kinases / Laboratory tests / Male / Medical imaging / Medical Microbiology / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Middle Aged / Mortality / Non-respiratory injury / Pandemics / Parasitology / Patients / Pneumonia, Viral - complications / Pneumonia, Viral - diagnostic imaging / Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology / Pneumonia, Viral - therapy / Polymerase chain reaction / Research Article / Respiratory failure / Respiratory function / Retrospective Studies / SARS-CoV-2 / Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Tropical Medicine / Viral diseases