Clinical Characteristics of Patients Infected With the Novel 2019 Coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) in Guangzhou, China

Abstract

Background: The clinical manifestations and factors associated with the severity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections outside of Wuhan are not clearly understood.

Methods: All laboratory-confirmed cases with SARS-Cov-2 infection who were hospitalized and monitored in Guangzhou Eighth People's Hospital were recruited from January 20 to February 10.

Results: A total of 275 patients were included in this study. The median patient age was 49 years, and 63.6% had exposure to Wuhan. The median virus incubation period was 6 days. Fever (70.5%) and dry cough (56.0%) were the most common symptoms. A decreased albumin level was found in 51.3% of patients, lymphopenia in 33.5%, and pneumonia based on chest computed tomography in 86%. Approximately 16% of patients (n = 45) had severe disease, and there were no deaths. Compared with patients with nonsevere disease, those with severe disease were older, had a higher frequency of coexisting conditions and pneumonia, and had a shorter incubation period (all P < .05). There were no differences between patients who likely contacted the virus in Wuhan and those who had no exposure to Wuhan. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that older age, male sex, and decreased albumin level were independently associated with disease severity.

Conclusions: Most of the patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Guangzhou, China are not severe cases and patients with older age, male, and decreased albumin level were more likely to develop into severe ones.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; clinical characteristics; epidemiology; risk factors; viral load.