Clinical course and characteristics of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 in Wuhan, China: a single-centered, retrospective, observational study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) is the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) pandemic. Despite the extensive studies aiming to understand the pathology of COVID-19, the clinicopathological characteristics and risk factors associated with COVID-19 remain mostly unclear. In this study, we assessed the clinical course and features of COVID-19 patients. FINDINGS: There were 59 patients (54.1%) that had no fever. One-hundred(91.7%) patients required oxygen therapy, which improved percutaneous oxygen saturation (SpO2). Seventy-two (66.1%) patients aged over 60; these patients were more likely to develop respiratory symptoms. Only 13(11.9%) patients were positive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid, and computed tomography (CT) findings. We found significant differences in age, respiratory symptoms, and heart rates between patients with and without underlying conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that oxygen plays an important role in the treatment of COVID-19 patients and that age and underlying diseases are significant risk factors for COVID-19. Most COVID-19 patients have no fever, and CT provides higher detection rates than antibody- and nucleic acid-based detection methods. METHODS: We analyzed data from 109 confirmed COVID-19 cases. We compared the clinicopathological characteristic of patients stratified according to age and underlying diseases, as well as assessed the detection rates of different diagnostic methods.