Clinical characteristics and progression of COVID-19 confirmed cases admitted to a single British clinical centre-a brief case series report

Abstract

Objectives: In December 2019, a pneumonia like illness was first reported in Wuhan-China caused by a new coronavirus named corona virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) which then spread to cause a global pandemic. Most of the available data in the literature is derived from Chinese cohorts and we aim to contribute the clinical experience of a single British clinical centre with the characteristics of a British cohort. Design: A prospective case series. Setting: A single clinical centre in the UK. Methods: We have collected the demographics and medical characteristics of all COVID-19 positive cases admitted over two-week period. All cases were diagnosed by PCR. Results: Total of 71 COVID-19 patients were included in this case series. Majority of patients (75%) were [?]75 years old and 58% were men. Pre-existing comorbidities was common (85% of patients). Most patients presented with respiratory symptoms such as fever (59%), shortness of breath (56%) and cough (55%). Gastrointestinal symptoms were second most common presenting compliant such as diarrhoea (10%) and abdominal pain (7%). Opacification in chest X-rays were demonstrated in 45% of patients. All patients received supportive treatment and no specific antiviral therapy was administered in this cohort. So far, 18 (25%) patients have fully recovered, 9 patients (13%) escalated to a higher level of care and 10 (14%) have died. Patients who died were non-significantly older than those who have recovered (78.0 v 69.2 years, p=0.15) but they had a significantly higher clinical frailty scores (5.75 v 3.36, p=0.005). Conclusion: This case series demonstrated that the characteristics of British COVID-19 patients were generally similar to what is published in literature although we report more gastrointestinal symptoms at presentation. We have identified frailty as a risk factor for adverse outcome in COVID-19 patients and suggest that it should be included in the future vaccination recommendations.