Abstract
Severe pneumonia caused by COVID-19 has resulted in many deaths worldwide. Here, we analyzed the clinical characteristics of the first 17 reported cases of death due to COVID-19 pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Demographics, initial symptoms, complications, chest computerized tomography (CT) images, treatments, and prognoses were collected and analyzed from the National Health Committee of China data. The first 17 reported deaths from COVID-19 were predominately in older men; 82.35% of patients were older than 65 years, and 76.47% were males. The most common initial symptoms were fever or fatigue (14 cases, 82.35%), respiratory symptoms, such as cough (12 cases, 70.59%), and neurological symptoms, such as headache (3 cases, 17.65%). The most common finding of chest CT was viral pneumonia (5 cases, 29.41%). Anti-infectives (11 cases, 64.71%) and mechanical ventilation (9 cases, 52.94%) were commonly used for treatment. Most of the patients (16 cases, 94.12%) died of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Our findings show that advanced age and male gender are effective predictors of COVID-19 mortality, and suggest that early interventions to reduce the incidence of ARDS may improve prognosis of COVID-19 pneumonia patients.
Highlights
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection that emerged in 2019 is the largest coronavirus infection in the world over the past 20 years
Our findings show that advanced age and male gender are effective predictors of COVID-19 mortality, and suggest that early interventions to reduce the incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) may improve prognosis of COVID-19 pneumonia patients
The first known 17 death cases due to COVID-19 pneumonia were included in the study; they consisted of 13 males and 4 females
Summary
The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection that emerged in 2019 is the largest coronavirus infection in the world over the past 20 years. The COVID-19 outbreak, initially originating in Wuhan, the Hubei province, has led to many deaths, but the clinical features of patients who died from COVID19 pneumonia during the early stages of the outbreak are not well characterized. Since this information might www.aging-us.com have a profound value for COVID-19 treatment and epidemic control [6], this study analyzed the clinical characteristics of the first 17 reported cases of death due to COVID-19 pneumonia
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