Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 46 corona virus disease 2019 cases in Beijing City / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate and analyze the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 46 patients with corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Beijing City.Methods:A retrospective study was conducted to analyze the data of 46 patients with COVID-19 in Beijing from 20th January 2020 to 8th February 2020 at the Fifth Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital in Beijing City. Twelve, 23 and 11 patients were assigned to the mild group, common group and severe group, respectively. The epidemiological history, clinical characteristics, laboratory tests and imaging inspections were analyzed. Statistical analysis used Fisher exact test. If P<0.05, post- hoc test was used for pairwise comparison, and the statistics were corrected by Bonferroni test. Results:Among the 46 patients included in this study, 27 were male and 19 were female. The age range was between 3-79 years old, and the age was (41.8±16.3) years old. The average incubation period was (4.85±3.00) days. A total of 26 cases (56.5%) were clustered patients, and 26 cases had a history of staying in Wuhan, 10 cases had contact with Wuhan personnel. Fever (39 cases, 84.8%), cough (27 cases, 58.7%), and fatigue (25 cases, 54.3%) were the main clinical symptoms for these patients. The decrease in white blood cell counts occurred in 12 patients, four had the decrease in T lymphocyte percentage, 17 had the decrease in CD4 + T lymphocyte counts, seven had the decrease in CD8 + T lymphocyte counts, 21 had the increase level of C reactive protein (45.7%), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) level increased in 32 cases (69.6%), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) increased in 23 cases (50.0%), serum ferritin level increased in 26 cases (56.5%), and blood lactic acid level increased in nine cases. There were statistically significant differences in the proportion of cases with decreased absolute value of CD8 + T lymphocytes and T lymphocytes counts among the mild, common and severe groups (all P<0.05). Comparing the proportion of cases in the three groups with elevated C reactive protein, IL-6, ESR, serum ferritin and blood lactic acid levels, the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). The proportion of cases with elevated C reactive protein levels in severe group was higher than those in mild and common groups. The proportion of cases with elevated IL-6, ESR, and serum ferritin levels in severe and common group were higher than those in mild group. The proportion of cases with elevated blood lactic acid levels in severe group was higher than those in mild group. The differences between the above groups were statistically significant (all adjusted P<0.017). Analysis of chest X-rays results showed that 34 patients (73.9%) had inflammation in the lungs. Conclusions:The epidemiological characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in Beijing City are mainly imported cases and clustered cases. The clinical manifestations are mainly fever, fatigue and cough. C reactive protein, IL-6, ESR, serum ferritin and blood lactic acid levels are higher in severe patients.