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. 2022 Jan-Dec:36:3946320221085465.
doi: 10.1177/03946320221085465.

Clinical and hematological characteristics of 300 COVID-19 patients in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Rundk Ahmad Hwaiz  1   2 , Sahar Mohammed Zaki Abdullah  3 , Salah Tofik Jalal Balaky  2   3 , Katan Sabir Ali  3 , Mohammed Yousif Merza  2   4   5 , Shakhawan Assad Khailani  6 , Nazar Pauls Shabila  7
Affiliations

Clinical and hematological characteristics of 300 COVID-19 patients in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Rundk Ahmad Hwaiz et al. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2022 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 primarily presents as a respiratory tract infection, but studies indicate that it could be considered a systemic disease that can spread to affect multiple organ systems, including respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, hematopoietic, neurological, and immune systems.

Objective: To describe and analyze the clinical and hematological characteristics of 300 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Erbil, Kurdistan.

Methods: This retrospective study included 300 patients of any age admitted to hospital due to confirmed COVID-19 between September 2020 and February 2021. Cases were diagnosed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assays of nasopharyngeal swab specimens.

Results: The highest proportion of patients were aged 21-40 years. The most common symptoms among the patients were myalgia (66.7%), fatigue (62.3%), headache (50.7%), and chest pain (52.7%). Differences in hematological and biochemical parameters were observed between deceased and recovered patients. Only the mid-range absolute count percentage (MID%) was significantly higher in the recovered patients than in the deceased ones (6.41% vs. 4.48, p = 0.019). Death was significantly higher among older patients (>40 years) than younger ones (≤40 years) (6.8% vs. 1.3%, p = 0.015), diabetic than non-diabetic (10.8% vs. 3%, p = 0.047), and those having chronic diseases than those without chronic diseases (10.6% vs. 2.1%, p = 0.006).

Conclusions: Different hematological and biochemical parameter findings were observed among the COVID-19 patients. Low MID%, older age, and presence of diabetes mellitus and chronic disease were significantly associated with death among COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Kurdistan Region; hematological characteristics; retrospective study.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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