Clinical and laboratory characteristics of the COVID-19 disease in adult patients

BACKGROUND: In December 2019, a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, appeared in Wuhan, China. This virus is the cause of the COVID-19 disease. This infection later spread to the whole world. The goal of this article is to present the clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with COVID-19 treated in the Faculty Hospital Pilsen. METHODS: In this monocentric, retrospective study, clinical and biochemical data of 89 adult patients with COVID-19 was analyzed. These patients were in the care of the Faculty Hospital Pilsen between March 14 and April 7. RESULTS: In this cohort, made up of 89 patients, 63 were treated as outpatients and 26 were hospitalized. 10 patients required intensive care. The most common symptoms among patients were cough and fever. Dyspnea was present in 29 patients. A CT scan showed bilateral pneumonia in 23 of the admitted patients. Fever and bilateral pneumonia were significantly more common in patients >= 60 years old (p=0.047, and p=0.001, respectively). Of lab results, the patients in intensive care had significantly higher values of C-reactive protein, procalcitonin, lactate dehydrogenase, interleukin 6, myoglobin and ferritin. CONCLUSION: The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever and cough. These two symptoms are simultaneously present in more than half the cases. Approximately 1/10th of patients requires intensive care. Higher values of lactate dehydrogenase, myoglobin and ferritin on patient admission appear to be a strong predictive factor of the patient's status progressing into requiring ICU attention.