Clinical characteristics and laboratory findings of patients with COVID-19 in Rasht, Iran

Abstract

In December 2019, an epidemic of an unknown respiratory virus emerged in Wuhan, China, and put the whole world in crisis; a newly emerged coronavirus, called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We aimed to evaluate epidemiological and clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in the North of Iran. We extracted demographics and baseline clinical characteristics from 126 patients with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed COVID-19 in Razi Hospital, Rasht, Iran. The mean age of patients was 62 years, ranging from 28 to 92 years old. Overall, 57.1% of cases were male and 42.9% were female. Totally, 17.5% of patients had direct contact with a SARS-CoV-2 infected patient. The most common underlying diseases were diabetes (11.9%) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) (7.1%). The mean±SD of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine phosphokinase (CPK), creatine kinase MB (CK-MB), serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT), and e rythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were remarkably higher than the normal range, (1231±866.4 U/L, 766.8±2288.6 U/L, 59.28±55.1 U/L, 112.28±213 U/L and 67.61±31 mm/hr), respectively. Also, the average O 2 Saturation (O 2 Sat) was 61.4±26.3%. Male gender, advanced age, a higher level of the cardiac enzyme, and a lower level of O 2 Sat are associated with severity in COVID-19 patients.