Abstract
Information about severe cases of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infection is scarce. The aim of this study was to report the clinical characteristics and outcomes of severe and critical patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection in Wenzhou city. In this single-centered, retrospective cohort study, we consecutively enrolled 37 RT-PCR confirmed positive severe or critical patients from January 28 to February 16, 2020 in a tertiary hospital. Outcomes were followed up until 28-day mortality. Fifteen severe and 22 critical adult patients with the COVID-19 infection were included. Twenty-six (68.4%) were men. Echocardiography data results suggest that normal or increased cardiac output and diastolic dysfunction are the most common manifestations. Compared with severe patients, critical patients were older, more likely to exhibit low platelet counts and high blood urea nitrogen, and were in hospital for longer. Most patients had organ dysfunction during hospitalization, including 11 (29.7%) with ARDS, 8 (21.6%) with acute kidney injury, 17 (45.9%) with acute cardiac injury, and 33 (89.2%) with acute liver dysfunction. Eighteen (48.6%) patients were treated with high-flow ventilation, 9 (13.8%) with non-invasive ventilation, 10 (15.4%) with invasive mechanical ventilation, 7 (18.9%) with prone position ventilation, 6 (16.2%) with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and 3 (8.1%) with renal replacement therapy. Only 1 (2.7%) patient had died in the 28-day follow up in our study. All patients had bilateral infiltrates on their chest CT scan. Twenty-one (32.3%) patients presented ground glass opacity (GGO) with critical patients more localized in the periphery and the center. The mortality of critical patients with the COVID-19 infection is low in our study. Cardiac function was enhanced in the early stage and less likely to develop into acute cardiac injury, but most patients suffered with acute liver injury. The CT imaging presentations of COVID-19 in critical patients were more likely with consolidation and bilateral lung involvement.
Highlights
Since December 2019, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan has spread to more than 100 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East, and has become a global threat to human health
Aimed at exploring clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized severe or critical patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection in Wenzhou, here, we show details of those patients admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University and clinical outcome as of 28-day mortality
Diagnosed with COVID-19 according to a laboratory reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, all these adult patients were confirmed as having the COVID-19 infection
Summary
Since December 2019, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan has spread to more than 100 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East, and has become a global threat to human health. Many studies have reported the clinical, epidemiological, laboratory, and radiological characteristics, and treatment and clinical outcomes of patients confirmed with COVID-19 pneumonia [2,3,4,5]. Most of those studies focused mainly on Wuhan or Hubei. There are significant regional differences in the outcomes of COVID-19 in Wuhan and elsewhere. Understanding the clinical characteristics of patients in other regions outside Wuhan is really necessary for implementing different levels of prevention and control measures
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