BMC Infect Dis . Clinical characteristics of inpatients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Sichuan province

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BMC Infect Dis


. 2021 Feb 8;21(1):155.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-05825-1.
Clinical characteristics of inpatients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Sichuan province


Wen Wang ^{# 1} , Lei Chen ^{# 2} , Qiao He ¹ , Mingqi Wang ¹ , Mei Liu ¹ , Taibing Deng ³ , Xiaoju Deng ⁴ , Jianrong Yang ⁵ , Ou Jiang ⁶ , Rongmei Li ^{7 8} , Bo Long ⁹ , Gang Mai ¹⁰ , Wenhui Huan ¹¹ , Wenquan Li ¹² , Xin Jiang ¹³ , Zeqiang Wen ¹⁴ , Yongjun Chen ¹⁵ , Wanzhi Fu ¹⁶ , Zhiling Long ¹⁷ , Fanxin Zeng ¹⁸ , Yan Chen ¹⁹ , Yihua Du ²⁰ , Juan Tang ²¹ , Xin Sun ^{# 22} , Weimin Li ^{# 23}



Affiliations

• PMID: 33557777
• DOI: 10.1186/s12879-021-05825-1

Abstract

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in serious concerns in China and abroad. To investigate clinical features of confirmed and suspected patients with COVID-19 in west China, and to examine differences between severe versus non-severe patients.
Methods: Patients admitted for COVID-19 between January 21 and February 11 from fifteen hospitals in Sichuan Province, China were included. Experienced clinicians trained with methods abstracted data from medical records using pre-defined, pilot-tested forms. Clinical characteristics between severe and non-severe patients were compared.
Results: Of the 169 patients included, 147 were laboratory-confirmed, 22 were suspected. For confirmed cases, the most common symptoms from onset to admission were cough (70?7%), fever (70?5%) and sputum (33?3%), and the most common chest CT patterns were patchy or stripes shadowing (78?0%); throughout the course of disease, 19?0% had no fever, and 12?4% had no radiologic abnormality; twelve (8?2%) received mechanical ventilation, four (2?7%) were transferred to ICU, and no death occurred. Compared to non-severe cases, severe ones were more likely to have underlying comorbidities (62?5% vs 26?2%, P = 0?001), to present with cough (92?0% vs 66?4%, P = 0?02), sputum (60?0% vs 27?9%, P = 0?004) and shortness of breath (40?0% vs 8?2%, P < 0?0001), and to have more frequent lymphopenia (79?2% vs 43?7%, P = 0?003) and eosinopenia (84?2% vs 57?0%, P = 0?046).
Conclusions: The symptoms of patients in west China were relatively mild, and an appreciable proportion of infected cases had no fever, warranting special attention.

Keywords: COVID-19; Clinical characteristics; Novel coronavirus.