Characteristics of patients with COVID-19 during epidemic ongoing outbreak in Wuhan, China

Abstract

Background Since Dec 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has caused about fifty thousand patients and over two thousand deaths in Wuhan, China. We reported characteristics of patients with COVID-19 during epidemic ongoing outbreak in Wuhan.Methods Data of COVID-19 patients with clinical outcome in a designated hospital in Wuhan, were retrospectively collected from electronic medical records. Characteristics were compared between patients who died or recovered, and between patients with different disease severity.Results By Feb 25, 2020, 403 patients were enrolled, 100 died and 303 recovered. Most of non-survivors tended to be males, old aged, or with chronic diseases. Duration from illness onset to admission was 9 (7-12) days. Patients with severe or critical illness had more days from onset to admission compared to those with ordinary illness. Lymphopenia, anemia, hypoproteinemia, and abnormal serum sodium were presented in 52.6%, 54.6%, 69.8%, and 21.8% cases, respectively.Patients who died or with severe/critical illness showed increased white blood cell and neutrophil count, serum total bilirubin, creatinine, hypersensitive troponin I, D-dimer, procalcitonin, and C-reactive protein, and decreased red blood cell, lymphocyte, platelet count, and serum albumin on admission compared to those who recovered or with ordinary illness. Complications of acute organ injury and secondary infection were common in patients with COVID-19, especially in non-survivors. ConclusionsMultiple homeostasis disturbances were common in patients with severe or critical illness at admission. Early support should be provided, especially for old men with chronic disease, which is vital to control disease progression and reduce mortality of COVID-19 during epidemic ongoing outbreak.

Diabetes mellitus is associated with increased mortality and severity of disease in COVID-19 pneumonia – A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression

“…30 studies were included in the qualitative synthesis and meta-analysis [ Figure 1]. [3,8,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]9,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] There were a total of 6452 patients from 30 studies.…”

D-dimer levels on admission and all-cause mortality risk in COVID-19 patients: a meta-analysis

“…1). Overall, there were six cohort studies [11,[14][15][16][17][18] and two case series [19,20] comparing on-admission D-dimer levels between non-survivors and survivors, and one cohort study [12] comparing patients with elevated D-dimer levels and normal D-dimer levels on admission. Only two studies were prospective studies [14,18], while the others were retrospective in nature.…”

“…Only two studies were prospective studies [14,18], while the others were retrospective in nature. All studies were conducted in China [11,12,[14][15][16][17]19], except for two studies carried out in the USA [20] and Italy [18], respectively. The quality and risk of bias assessment of the included studies are shown in Tables S3 and S4.…”

Cigarette smoke exposure and inflammatory signaling increase the expression of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 in the respiratory tract

“…Epidemiological studies have identified several demographic features that correlate with the severity of clinical COVID-19 cases. While fewer than 5% of SARS-CoV-2 infections are fatal 10 , men and elderly patients are particularly at risk of developing severe disease 11–14 . Additionally, cigarette smokers are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and are significantly more likely to require aggressive clinical interventions: in a study of 1,099 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, 12.3% of current smokers required mechanical ventilation, were admitted to an ICU, or died, compared to only 4.7% of non-smokers 12 .…”