Understanding the clinical and demographic characteristics of second coronavirus spike in 192 patients in Tehran, Iran: A retrospective study

Abstract

During the last months of the coronavirus pandemic, with all those public restrictions and health interventions, the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appears now to have been raised in some countries around the world. Iran was one of those first countries facing the second wave of coronavirus, due to the lack of appropriate public restrictions because of economic problems the country is facing. The clinical and demographic characteristics of severe cases and non-severe cases of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in 192 patients in Tehran, Iran, between June 16 and July 11, 2020, were investigated. The patients were divided into severe cases (n = 82) and non-severe cases (n = 110). Demographic and clinical characteristics were compared between the two study clusters. The mean age was 54.6 ± 17.2 years, and the most common presenting symptom was persistent cough (81.8%) and fever (79.7%). The logistic regression model revealed that age, BMI, and affected family members were statistically associated with severity. Patients with complicated conditions of disorders faced more hospitalization days and medical care than the average statistical data. As the coronavirus spike in the case and death reports from June 2020, we observed the rise in the incidence of severe cases, where 42.7% (82/192) of cases have resulted in severe conditions. Our findings also suggested that the effect of IFB (Betamethasone) was more valid than the other alternative drugs such as LPV/r and IVIg.

Fig 1. COVID-19 signs and symptoms, and the structure of Novel Coronavirus 2019.

Fig 2. The relationship between patient’s diseases and their average duration of hospitalization for the studied cases.

a) for most common disorders involved with patients, b) for more complicated mixtures of diseases, were observed in cases (COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, CVD stands for cardiovascular disease, HCL stands for Hypercholesterolemia, HTN stands for Hypertension, and MI stands for Myocardial Infarction).