Clinical course and progression of severe and critically ill patients with corona virus disease 2019 (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Background：The emergence of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 is a major public health issue, causing to a large global outbreak. However, the information regarding the clinical characteristic and progression of severe and critically ill patients with COVID-19 is scarce.Methods: We conducted a single-center, retrospective, observational study and enrolled 126 severe and critically ill adult patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Tongji hospital, between Feb 1 and Feb 20, 2020.Results: Of 126 patients, 85 patients with the positive of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were included. The mean age of 85 patients was 68.3 (SD 10.5) years. More than half were men, 55 (62.4%) had chronic illness. 57 (66.3%) patients had died before Feb 28, 2020. the median duration from onset of illness to death, hospitalization to death and ICU admission to death were 22 (17.0-26.0) days, 9.0 (6.0-13.0) days and 5.0 (2.0-6.0) days, respectively. Compared with survivors, non-survivors were more likely old (69.6 [SD 10.22] vs 65.6 [10.9]). Furthermore, the non-survivors had higher white blood cell (WBC) and neutrophil count, neutrophil percentage, high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and lower lymphocyte and platelet count, lymphocyte percentage and albumin. Notably, arbidol may improve the survival of severe and critically ill patients.Conclusions: Our study reveals the non-survivors had worse blood routine and other clinical monitors. Additionally, arbidol may play useful role in the survival of severe and critically ill patients, which needs further validation.