J Med Virol. 2020 Sep 18. doi: 10.1002/jmv.26527. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Since December 2019, the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a worldwide pandemic. The aim of the study is to investigate the demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics in suspected COVID-19 patients in our institution.
METHODS: In this retrospective study, we investigated suspected COVID-19 patients admitted to the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a request for IL-6 send-out test, from March 28 to June 27, 2020. Patients' demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics were collected by chart review.
RESULTS: Fifty patients suspected with COVID-19 were included in our study, of whom 24 patients were positive with severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and 26 were negative. During the observation period, 30 patients were discharged, 17 died during hospitalization, and three remained in hospital. Compared to non-COVID-19 patients, COVID-19 patients had an older age, more comorbidities, and elevated levels of inflammation markers such as ESR, CRP, serum ferritin and LDH. However, there was no significant difference in laboratory data between survivors and non-survivors in COVID-19 patients in our study.
CONCLUSION: This study indicated that potential risk factors of older age, multiple comorbidities and high levels of ESR, CRP, serum ferritin and LDH could help clinician to identify potential COVID-19 patients. However, this data needs to be further validated in a larger population. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
PMID:32946118 | DOI:10.1002/jmv.26527