Comparison and analysis of clinical characteristics in hospitalized elderly COVID-19 patients of varying severity / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the clinical characteristics of hospitalized elderly patients with varying degrees of corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19), hoping to help improve the understanding and management of COVID-19.Methods:A total of 70 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with complete clinical data collected between February 7, 2020 and April 6, 2020 were enrolled.Epidemiological features, underlying conditions, clinical manifestations and treatment outcomes were analyzed.Patients were divided into the elderly group and the non-elderly group based on age and were also divide into the normal group, the severe group and the critical group based on severity.Early warning indicators of severe disease were compared and analyzed.Results:Seventy hospitalized COVID-19 patients aged from 28-92 years, with an average age of 59.2 years.Epidemiological characteristics of the patients were mainly clusters of fever within 14 days of onset, with 13(18.57%)patients with diabetes, 22(31.43%)with hypertension, 5(7.1%)with coronary heart disease and 10(14.29%)with malignant tumor.Patients with more than 2 comorbidity diseases had a poor prognosis, characterized by long hospital stays, recurrent complications and fatal complications, including acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS), sepsis and death.In this study, 4 patients died.Hospital stays were prolonged, peripheral blood neutrophil count increased, lymphocyte count decreased, and levels of transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase, C-reactive protein and interleukin(IL)-6 were elevated with increasing severity of COVID-19( P<0.01). Conclusions:People of all ages are susceptible to COVID-19.Clinical warning signs of exacerbation for the common type become more prominent with increasing severity of COVID-19.