Clinical characteristics of 208 patients with COVID-19 in a surrounding city of Wuhan, China
Authors: Chen Xin , Chen Peng , Djakpo Dodji Kossi , Lin Yan , Zhang Rong , Wang Zhiquan 
Published: April 2020

Background: Since December 2019, a severe novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection (Coronavirus Disease 2019,COVID-19) has occurred in Wuhan, China, and has rapidly spread to the country and around the world. This study intends to investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in a surrounding city of Wuhan.Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 208 cases of COVID -19 patients from February 11, 2020 to February 29, 2020 in Xiaogan dongnan Hospital, collected basic information, history of exposure, medical history, clinical symptoms, laboratory indicators and pulmonary imaging Data, and analyzed the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of all patients. According to the clinical classification criteria, 208 patients were divided into light group and ordinary group, and the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the two groups were compared.Results: Among 208 patients in this study, with a median age of 50.5 years (IQR,36-64.7,range,10-91 years), among which 107 (51.4%) were males and 101 (48.6%) were females. 51 (24.5%) had a clear exposure to COVID-19 infection within 2 weeks before admission, and 40 (19.2%) had a history of residence or exposure in Wuhan within 2 weeks before admission. Among all the patients, there were 16 (7.7%) with pulmonary diseases, 41 (19.7%) with hypertension, 11 (5.3%) with coronary heart disease, 13 (6.3%) with diabetes, 12(5.8%) with a history of alcohol consumption, and 12(5.8%) with a history of smoking. Among all clinical symptoms, 146 cases (70.2%) of fever, the highest temperature range was 37.3℃-41℃ before admission, 115 (55.3%) cases of cough, and 57 (27.4%) cases of chest tightness, 47 (22.6%) cases of fatigue, 28 (13.5%) cases of inappetence, 9 (4.3%) cases of diarrhea, 7 (3.4%) cases of nasal congestion or runny nose , and 5 ( 2.4%) cases of pharyngalgia. Analysis of the laboratory results of 208 patients showed that 42 (20.2%) cases had decreased white blood cell count, and 61 (29.3%) cases had decreased lymphocyte count. There were 154 (74%) cases with elevated CRP, 50 (24%) cases with elevated fasting blood glucose, and 23 (11.1%) cases with elevated LDH (>245U/L). The comparison of clinical characteristics between the light group and the common group showed that the median age of the light group was 44.8 years (IQR 30-58), the median age of the common group was 53.1 years (IQR 38.8-67) (P<0.01). The symptoms of fever [53(80.3%) vs 93(65.5%),P<0.05], fatigue [53(80.3%) vs 93(65.5%),P<0.05] and inappetence [4(6.1%) vs 24(16.9%),P<0.05] in the light group were less than those in the common group. The white blood cell count (5.48 vs 6.37, P<0.05), lymphocyte count (1.40 vs 1.61, P<0.05) and HDL-C (1.5 vs 1.3, P<0.05) of the common group were lower than that of the light group, while CRP (26.5 vs 22.1, P<0.01), AST (22.9 vs 18.5, P<0.05), fasting blood glucose (5.8 vs 5.6, P<0.05), LDH (196.8 vs 157.9, P<0.001) of the common group were higher than that of the light group.Conclusion: COVID-19 infection is mainly in middle-aged and elderly patients, patients with other diseases are more susceptible to infection. The main symptoms of COVID-19 infection were fever, cough, chest tightness, fatigue, and inappetence. Decreased lymphocyte count, increased CRP concentration, increased LDH concentration and decreased HDL-C concentration were the laboratory features of COVID-19 infection, and were important indicators to assess the severity of COVID-19 disease.