Clinical characteristics and progression of COVID-19 confirmed cases
admitted to a single British clinical centre-a brief case series report
Abstract
Objectives: In December 2019, a pneumonia like illness was first
reported in Wuhan-China caused by a new coronavirus named corona virus
disease -2019 (COVID-19) which then spread to cause a global pandemic.
Most of the available data in the literature is derived from Chinese
cohorts and we aim to contribute the clinical experience of a single
British clinical centre with the characteristics of a British cohort.
Design: A prospective case series. Setting: A single clinical centre in
the UK. Methods: We have collected the demographics and medical
characteristics of all COVID-19 positive cases admitted over two-week
period. All cases were diagnosed by PCR. Results: Total of 71 COVID-19
patients were included in this case series. Majority of patients (75%)
were ≥75 years old and 58% were men. Pre-existing comorbidities was
common (85% of patients). Most patients presented with respiratory
symptoms such as fever (59%), shortness of breath (56%) and cough
(55%). Gastrointestinal symptoms were second most common presenting
compliant such as diarrhoea (10%) and abdominal pain (7%).
Opacification in chest X-rays were demonstrated in 45% of patients. All
patients received supportive treatment and no specific antiviral therapy
was administered in this cohort. So far, 18 (25%) patients have fully
recovered, 9 patients (13%) escalated to a higher level of care and 10
(14%) have died. Patients who died were non-significantly older than
those who have recovered (78.0 v 69.2 years, p=0.15) but they had a
significantly higher clinical frailty scores (5.75 v 3.36, p=0.005).
Conclusion: This case series demonstrated that the characteristics of
British COVID-19 patients were generally similar to what is published in
literature although we report more gastrointestinal symptoms at
presentation. We have identified frailty as a risk factor for adverse
outcome in COVID-19 patients and suggest that it should be included in
the future vaccination recommendations.