Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 is an escalating global epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, with a high mortality in critical patients. Effective indicators for predicting disease severity in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients are urgently needed. Methods: In this study, 43 COVID-19 patients admitted in ChongqingPublic Health Medical Center were involved. Demographic data, clinical features, and laboratory examinations were obtained through electronic medical records. Peripheral blood specimens were collected from COVID-19 patients and examined for lymphocyte subsets and cytokine profiles by flow cytometry. Potential contributing factors for prediction of disease severity were further analyzed.Results: A total of 43 COVID-19 patients were included in this study, including 29 mild patients and 14 sever patients. Severe patients were significantly older (61.9±9.4 vs 44.4±15.9) and had higher incidence in co-infection with bacteria compared to mild group (85.7%vs27.6%).Significantly more severe patients had the clinical symptoms of anhelation (78.6%) and asthma (71.4%). For laboratory examination, 57.1% severe cases showed significant reduction in lymphocyte count.The levels of Interluekin-6 (IL6), IL10, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and D-Dimer (D-D) were significantly higher in severe patients than mild patients, while the level of albumin (ALB) was remarkably : medRxiv preprint lower in severe patients. Further analysis demonstrated that ESR, D-D, age, ALB and IL6 were the major contributing factors for distinguishing severe patients from mild patients. Moreover, ESR was identified as the most powerful factor to predict disease progression of COVID-19 patients. Conclusion:Age and the levels of ESR, D-D, ALB and IL6 are closely related to the disease severity of COVID-19 patients. ESR can be used as a valuable indicator for distinguishing severe COVID-19 patients in early stage, so as to increase the survival of severe patients.

With the rapid rise in the prevalence of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) diseases across the world, the microbiological diagnosis of NTM isolates is becoming increasingly important for the diagnosis and treatment of NTM disease. In this study, the clinical presentation, species distribution and drug susceptibility of patients with NTM disease visiting the Chongqing Public Health Medical Centre during March 2016–April 2019 were retrospectively analysed. Among the 146 patients with NTM disease, eight NTM species (complex) were identified. The predominant NTM species in these patients were identified to be Mycobacterium abscessus complex (53, 36.3%), M. intracellulare (38, 26%) and M. fortuitum (17, 11.7%). In addition, two or more species were isolated from 7.5% of the patients. Pulmonary NTM disease (142, 97.3%) showed the highest prevalence among the patients. It was observed that 40.1% of the patients with pulmonary NTM disease had chronic pulmonary obstructive disease and bronchiectasis, while 22.5% had prior tuberculosis. Male patients showed more association with the conditions of cough and haemoptysis than the female patients. In an in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing, most of the species showed susceptibility to linezolid, amikacin and clarithromycin, while M. fortuitum exhibited low susceptibility to tobramycin. In conclusion, the prevalence of NTM disease, especially that of the pulmonary NTM disease, is common in Southwest China. Species identification and drug susceptibility testing are thus extremely important to ensure appropriate treatment regimens for patient care and management.