Clinical Characteristics of Patients with 2019 Coronavirus disease in a non-Wuhan area of Hubei Province, China: a retrospective study

Abstract Background: Since December, 2019, the 2019 Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from Wuhan, China, has caused worldwide outbreak with more than 200,000 people infected and thousands of deaths. The clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in non-Wuhan areas of Hubei province have not been described. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics and treatment progress of 91 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Jingzhou Central Hospital. Results: Of the 91 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, 30 (33.0%) cases were severe and two (2.2%) patients died. The severe patients tended to be older (50.5 vs 42.0, P=0.049), and have more chronic disease (40% vs 14.75%, P=0.009), compared to mild group. Only 73.6% of the patients were quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) positive on their first tests, while typical chest computed tomographic (CT) images were obtained for each patient. The most common complaints were cough (75, 82.4%), fever (59, 64.8%), fatigue (35, 38.5%), and diarrhea (14, 15.4%). Non-respiratory injur y was identified by elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase (18, 19.8%), creatinine (5, 5.5%) and creatine kinase (14, 15.4%) in laboratory tests. In sum, 28 (30.8%) cases suffered non-respiratory injury, including 50% of the critically ill patients and 21.3% of the mild patients. Conclusions: Overall, the mortality rate of patients in Jingzhou is lower than that of Wuhan. Importantly, we discovered liver, kidney, digestive tract and heart injury in COVID-19 cases besides respiratory problems. Combining Chest CT images with qPCR of throat swab samples would improve the accuracy of COVID-19 diagnose.