Clinical findings of 35 cases with novel coronavirus pneumonia outside of Wuhan (preprint)

Objective: We sought to investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia in Xiamen, which is a city in Fujian Province, China. Methods: From January 20, 2020, to March 4, 2020, the clinical characteristics of all patients confirmed with novel coronavirus pneumonia admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, which was the only designated hospital for cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia in Xiamen, were analyzed. Results: A total of 35 cases of novel coronavirus pneumonia were confirmed. Patients were divided into the general-ward admission group and the intensive-care-unit (ICU) admission group. The most commonly observed symptoms were fever (80%), cough (51%), expectoration (28%), and fatigue (23%). Compared with patients in the general-ward group, patients in the ICU group had a higher maximum body temperature, a longer duration of fever after admission, and more symptoms of systemic pain. Considering the laboratory findings, patients in the ICU group exhibited lower peripheral blood lymphocyte ratios and lymphocyte counts but higher C-reactive protein and lactate dehydrogenase levels. All patients were discharged without death, and no patients required invasive ventilation, continuous renal replacement therapy, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Conclusion: Relative to patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, the cases in Xiamen were less severe.

Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in Fujian Province: a multicenter retrospective study (preprint)

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide, leading to thousands of deaths. We aim to describe the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Fujian province, China. Methods In this retrospective, multi-center study, we collected and analysed 165 patients of COVID-19 confirmed by real time PCR of nasopharyngeal swab specimens in five tertiary hospitals of Fujian province, China from Jan 22 to Feb 16, 2020. The final date of follow-up was February 21, 2020. Results Of the 165 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, 101 patients had relation with Wuhan within two weeks. Symptoms at illness onset mainly were fever (76.4%), cough (60%) and expectoration (38.2%). On admission, the severity of most patients were classified as mild or common and lymphopenia (33.9%), hypoxemia (15.2%), elevated and bilateral pneumonia (83.6%) was observed. Patients older than 65 years had significantly high frequency of hypertension, diabetes, severe classification, lymphopenia and hypoxemia than those younger than 65 years. Age correlated negatively with lymphocyte count and oxygenation index on admission while positively with duration from exposure to the time of negative RT-PCR. At the end of follow-up, 80 patients were discharged and one died. The median hospital stay was 17 days. Conclusions Patients with COVID-19 were mostly non-severe cases in Fujian province and older patients (>65 years) were more likely to have lymphopenia and hypoxemia, and to progress as severe cases of COVID-19 than those younger than 65.