Demographic and baseline characteristics
This study examined 70 COVID-19 patients discharged from the hospital by the end of February, 28 2020. The median age was 43 (interquartile range, IQR: 34-56) years. 2 (2.9%) patients were 18 years and younger, 26 (37.1%) were 18-40, 30 (42.9%) were 41-60, and 12 (17.1%) were 60 years and older (Table 1). 41 (58.6%) patients were female, 33 (47.1%) patients were hospitalized more than 14 days. There were 3 (4.3%) severe COVID-19 patients, among which two were cured and discharged from hospital, and the last was transferred to a provincial hospital for his congenital cerebral palsy. 18 (25.7%) patients were residents of Wuhan or recently travelled to Wuhan, 38 (54.3%) patients had close contact with COVID-19 patients, 5 (7.1) patients resided of Hubei province (except Wuhan) or travelled there, leaving 9 (12.9%) patients with unknown epidemiological history whose jobs may involve making contacts with many people, such as taxi driver and shop assistant (others were still unknown).
Among the 70 COVID-19 patients, 28 (40.0%) patients had pre-existing diseases. The most common pre-existing diseases were liver disease (15.7%), hypertension (12.9%), renal disease (8.6), and lung disease (5.7%). The median Body Mass Index was 23.0 (IQR: 20.3-25.2), and the time from illness onset to hospitalization was 4 (IQR: 2-7) days.
Clinical information
Compared with the hospitalization day 1, the Clinical manifestations such as highest temperature, fatigue, and cough of the hospitalization last day were significantly better (Table 2). At the same time, the effect of the clinical outcomes were observed throughout the treatment period. The most common treatment regimen was Lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV) + Interferon alpha inhalation (IAI) + Arbidol, which ranges from the proportion of 58.7% in hospitalization day 1 to 74.2% in hospitalization last day. Patients suspected of and then confirmed at the hospital or confirmed patients in the early stage of the treatment, could use the single LPV from hospitalization day1 to day4, and then transformed from the single drug to a combined antiviral treatment. ‘LPV+ IAI+ Arbidol+ Antibiotics’ was another common treatment, which ranged from the proportion of 1.6% on day 1 to 12.9% on day last. 69 (98.6%) patients received antiviral treatment during the whole hospitalization period, only one patient receiving symptomatic treatment for her pre-existing diseases. 13 (18.6%) patients received antibiotic treatment and 10 (14.3%) patients received corticosteroid treatment during their hospitalization.
Laboratory outcomes
Compared with hospitalization day1, White blood cell count, C-reacting protein, Potassium, Aspartate aminotransferase, Lactate dehydrogenase, and Lactic acid were dropped significantly hospitalization the last day of hospitalization (Table 3). On day 1, 7 (11.7%) patients diagnosed with leucopenia (white blood cell count <3.5×109/L) and only 3 (4.6%) still had leucopenia on the last day. The C-reacting protein (>10 mg/L), Lactate dehydrogenase (>250 U/L), and Aspartate aminotransferase (>40 U/L) had higher levels of proportions in day1 than last day, while the proportion of Potassium (≥3.5 mmol/L) and Lactic acid (>2.1 mmol/L) were higher in last day of the hospitalization than day1. 28 (46.7%) patients diagnosed with lymphopenia (lymphocyte count <1.0×109/L) in day1, 19 (29.3%) showed lymphopenia in last day of hospitalization.
The proportion of serum amyloid-A > 10 mg/L had no significance between day1 and day-last, although it was higher in day3, day4, and day6. The median of D-dimer ranged from 0.21 to 0.28 between day1 and last day, and the highest proportion of D-dimer (>0.55 mg/L) was in day6 with 6 (28.6%) patients. 11 (26.8%) patients had Arterial oxygen pressure less than 83 mmHg on day1, and that number dropped to 5 (11.6%) on the last day. In order to clearly demonstrate the temporal changes of the laboratory, a box plot was plotted in Fig 1.
Radiography findings
The median number of times a patients receiving chest computed tomography (CT) from day1 to day7 was 3 (IQR: 3-4), indicating that most patients had a chest CT every other day (Table 4). 62 (88.6%) patients were first identified with a viral pneumonia, and the typical chest computed tomographic images were patchy shadows and ground glass opacity (Fig 2). There was only one patient whose chest CT was normal, the other seven patient were shown with Bronchitis (1), Fibrosis (2), Emphysema (1), and Pulmonary nodule (3), respectively. The most common performance of the CT result was Viral pneumonia+ better+ better (7, 10%), and then was Viral pneumonia+ worse+ better+ better (6, 8.6%). There were 41 (74.5%) patients having “Better+ Pulmonary inflammation” CT result before they were discharged from the hospital.