New perspectives into the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 disease

Abstract COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, but with very little is known about it. In this single-centered, retrospective study, we collected all 37 confirmed cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in Dazhou, Sichuan, China from January 23 to February 25, 2020，and analyzed the demographic, clinical, and laboratory data. All of the cases were either imported from Wuhan and transmitted in family clusters. The average age of the patients was 45.76 ± 13.1 years. The average duration of pharyngeal swabs was 20.65 ± 6.7 days. Four (10.8%) patients were asymptomatic, 33 (89.1%) patients had increased lactic acid, 17 (45.9%) patients had increased fibrinogen C (Fib-C), and 5 (13.5%) patients had increased D-Dimers. 29 (87.9%) cases were positive for new coronavirus-specific antibodies, 4 (10.8%) cases were positive for viral nucleic acid in stool samples, 1 (2.7%) patient had positive culture of Klebsiella pneumonia. Therefore, we can predict that Lopinavir/ritonavir and abidol may not be effective in treating COVID-19.Elevated lactic acid, Fib-C, and D-dimer in patients may be predictors of disease progression. The new coronavirus-specific IgM and IgG antibodies can help to diagnose the disease. We need to pay attention to the risks posed by fecal nucleic acid positive patients.Authors Chun Liu, FanXin Zeng, and PingXi Wang contributed equally to this work.