ABSTRACT
Introduction: A pandemic emerged in 2020 in Wuhan, China because of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus infection. It rapidly disseminated all over the world in a short time. This study described the demographic and clinical features of 479 coronavirus disease-2019 patients admitted to a designated pandemic hospital in Izmir, Turkey, and it aimed to incorporate our experiences into current literature. Materials and Methods: Patients confirmed with symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection by real-time polymerase chain reaction or by typical chest computed tomography findings and rapid antibody test positivity were enrolled in the study. Demographic and clinical data of the patients were extracted from electronic medical recordings. The patients were categorized into three groups based on the severity of clinical and laboratory findings: group 1, uncomplicated disease;group 2, mild/moderate disease;and group 3, severe disease. Demographic and clinical findings were compared between groups. Results: The mean age of the patients was 50.7 +/- 19.3 years;50.5% of the patients were male. No significant difference was observed between gender distributions in groups. The most common symptoms on admission were cough (219, 45.7%), fever (187, 39%), fatigue (176, 36.7%), and dyspnea (63, 13.2%). The most frequently observed comorbidities were hypertension (129, 26.9%), diabetes (71, 14.8%), and chronic heart diseases (35, 7.3%). The patients in group 3 had shown significantly higer number of underlying diseases. On chest computed tomography, ground-glass opacity was the most common radiologic finding. C-reactive protein, D-dimer, ferritin, and procalcitonin were found to be in significantly increased levels in patients with severe disease. Conclusion: Our observations during the first three months of pandemic suggested that the patients can present with a varying degree of severity. Some prognostic markers can predict the progression of the disease. We emphasize that accumulating experiences in the management of the disease accompanied by up-to-date tracking of guidelines would enable us to face up against upcoming surges more effectively.