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©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Hengyang, Hunan Province, China
Zhe-Feng Zhong, Jia Huang, Xia Yang, Jin-Ling Peng, Xiao-Yan Zhang, Yang Hu, Nian Fu, Hai-Lian Lin, Bo Jiang, Ya-Ying Tian, Hong-Yi Yao, Li-Pu Deng, Xiao-Qing Tang, Jie-Can Zhou, Jian Tang, Xia Xie, Qiong Liu, Jing Liu, Cheng-Yun Dou, Rong-Juan Dai, Bo Yan, Xue-Feng Yang
Zhe-Feng Zhong, Bo Jiang, Ya-Ying Tian, Department of Infectious Diseases, the Affiliated Nanhua Hospital, Hengyang Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang 421002, Hunan Province, China
Jia Huang, Yang Hu, Nian Fu, Hai-Lian Lin, Xue-Feng Yang, Department of Gastroenterology, the Affiliated Nanhua Hospital, Hengyang Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang 421002, Hunan Province, China
Xia Yang, Jin-Ling Peng, Xiao-Yan Zhang, Department of General Practice, the Affiliated Nanhua Hospital, Hengyang Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang 421002, Hunan Province, China
Hong-Yi Yao, Li-Pu Deng, Department of Intensive Medicine, the Affiliated Nanhua Hospital, Hengyang Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang 421002, Hunan Province, China
Xiao-Qing Tang, Institute of Clinical Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital, Hengyang Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, Hunan Province, China
Jie-Can Zhou, Jian Tang, Xia Xie, Qiong Liu, Jing Liu, Cheng-Yun Dou, Rong-Juan Dai, Department of Infectious Diseases, the First Affiliated Hospital, Hengyang Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, Hunan Province, China
Bo Yan, Department of Cardiology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Hengyang Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, Hunan Province, China
Author contributions: Zhong ZF and Huang J equally contributed to this work; Yang XF and Tang XQ designed the study and edited the manuscript; Zhong ZF, Hu Y, Deng LP, Jiang B, Tian YY, Yao HY, Zhou JC, Tang J, Xie X, Liu Q, Liu J, Dou CY, and Dai RJ participated in data collection; Yang X, Peng JL, Zhang XY, Yan B, and Fu N took part in data sorting; Yang XF, Huang J, and Lin HL carried out statistical analysis; all the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Emergency Project of University of South China, No. 2020-15 and No. 2020-25; the Hengyang Science and Technology Plan Project-Basic Research Project of Prevention and Treatment of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia, No. 202010031577; the Scientific Research Project of Hunan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, No. A2017015; the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China, No. 2016JJ5010; and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81373465.
Institutional review board statement: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and it was approved by the Ethics Committee of Affiliated Nanhua Hospital of the University of South China.
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is not a clinical trial study.
Informed consent statement: All the patients signed a written informed consent form prior to commencing the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xue-Feng Yang, MD, Full Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, the Affiliated Nanhua Hospital, Hengyang Medical College, University of South China, No. 336, Dongfeng Road, Zhuhui District, Hengyang 421002, Hunan Province, China. yxf9988@126.com
Received: March 13, 2020
Peer-review started: March 13, 2020
First decision: March 27, 2020
Revised: May 15, 2020
Accepted: June 2, 2020
Article in press: June 2, 2020
Published online: June 26, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
At present, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is influencing 210 countries and territories worldwide, which is becoming a severe public health concern.
Research motivation
There have been rare reports about the differences in the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with different genders, clinical classification, and with or without basic diseases.
Research objectives
To study the differences in the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with different genders, clinical classification, and with or without basic diseases, and provide a reliable reference for the prevention and control of COVID-19.
Research methods
From January 16 to March 2, 2020, a total of 48 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Hengyang and were included in this study. All the data were imported into the excel worksheet and statistically analyzed by using SPSS25.0 software.
Research results
The main symptoms of COVID-19 patients in Hengyang were fever, cough and expectoration, fatigue, and chills, and there were multiple organ dysfunction or damage, such as reduced peripheral blood leukocytes, lymphocytes, and eosinophils, and increased C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, blood glucose, LD-L, D-dimer, ALT, AST, γ-GT, MB, and CK. Except for the mild patients, chest CT showed pulmonary lesions. On March 2, 2020, 48 patients with COVID-19 were all cured and discharged.
Research conclusions
The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with different genders, clinical classification, and with or without basic diseases are not very different in most cases, and slightly different in individual cases. Clinical manifestations and laboratory tests reveal that patients with COVID-19 have multiple organ dysfunction or damage.
Research perspectives
The mechanism of COVID-19 combining multiple organ dysfunction or damage is worth further study.
