• Yupeng Li, Yu Shang, Yi Yang, Menghan Wang, Dongping Yu, Dongju Su, Lei Liu, Qin Wang, Xiaona Zhang, Juan Ren, and Hong Chen.
• Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
• Respiration. 2020 Jan 1; 99 (9): 739-747.

BackgroundCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global emerging infectious disease.ObjectivesTo analyze the initial clinical characteristics of COVID-19 suspected and confirmed patients on admission in order to find out which kinds may be more likely to get positive nucleic acid testing results, and to explore the risk factors associated with all-cause death.MethodsMedical records from 309 highly suspected cases with pneumonia were collected from February 13, 2020, to March 14, 2020, in a COVID-19-designated hospital of Wuhan. The majority of the clinical data were collected on the first day of hospital admission.ResultsOf 309 patients with median age 64 years (interquartile ranges [IQR], 53-72 years), 111 patients (35.9%) were confirmed by nucleic acid testing (median age 64 years, IQR: 56-71 years; 48 males). Of those 111 patients, 13 (11.7%) patients died. In multivariate analysis, factors associated with positive testing included fatigue (odds ratios [OR] = 3.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.88-5.24, p < 0.001), cough (OR = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.32-0.95, p = 0.032), no less than 1 comorbidity (OR = 1.77; 95% CI: 1.06-2.98, p = 0.030), and severe pneumonia (OR = 2.67; 95% CI: 1.20-5.97, p = 0.016). Furthermore, age, dyspnea, noneffective antibiotic treatment, white blood cell, lymphocyte, platelets, and organ dysfunction (e.g., higher lactate dehydrogenase) were significantly associated with all-cause in-hospital death in patients with COVID-19.ConclusionPatients with severe forms of this disease were more likely to get positive results. Age and organ dysfunction were associated with a greater risk of death.© 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel.

65 keywords...

hide…