Clinical and demographic profile of COVID-19 patients- A cross-sectional study from a tertiary care medical college hospital from South India

Background: Acute respiratory illness with fever and respiratory symptoms such as cough and shortness of breath comprise the main clinical presenta?ons of Corona virus disease (COVID-19).Clinical manifesta?ons in COVID-19 shows significant regional varia?ons. Objec?ve of the study: To study the demographic and clinical profiles of laboratory confirmed COVID-19 pa?ents in South India Methods: In this cross sec?onal study,pa?ents diagnosed with COVID-19 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reac?on (RT-PCR) test were taken up for the study.History of fever,throatpain,cough,breathlessness,malaise were taken.Blood pressure,respiratory rate,oxygen satura?on were recorded.Data on co-morbid illnessness like diabetes,hypertension,renal disease were also noted .All these were correlated to assess the clinical course of COVID-19 Results: Of the total 518 pa?ents,257(49.6%) pa?ents were in the age group of 46 to 65 years and 309 (59.7 %) pa?ents were males. History of fever was present in 349(67.38%) pa?ents and cough was present in 291 (56.17%) pa?ents. Throat pain and running nose was present in 291 (56.2%)and 110 (21.23%) pa?ents respec?vely. Heart rate was between 60 and 100 beats per minute in 472 (80.3%) of pa?ents and 102 (19.7%) pa?ents had respiratory distress with respiratory rate ?24. Oxygen satura?on was between 90-93% in 57 (9.85%) pa?ents and 87(16.8%) pa?ents were on oxygen support with 21(4.1%) pa?ents on non-invasive ven?la?on. A total of 291(56.2%) pa?ents were treated with steroids. Diabetes mellitus was present in 214(41.3%), hypertension in 150 (29%) pa?ents. Case fatality rate was 2.1% Conclusion: Severe disease and lower oxygen satura?on was associated with older age and co-morbid diseases par?cularly diabetes