The recent outbreak of coronavirus has created a global hysteria\u00a0mainly because not much is known about\u00a0its clinical presentation, morbidity, and mortality. Prior to this outbreak, only anecdotal reports existed about coronavirus. The outbreak has infected thousands of people and has resulted in\u00a0hundreds of deaths in China. However, despite this outbreak and global concerns, there is a lack of data regarding the infection.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might also like<\/em><\/strong>:\u00a0A Framework for Addressing Seasonal Influenza: A Critical Care Perspective<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the initial outbreak of coronavirus was in the city of Wuhan, China, investigators in the city have conducted the\u00a0first large scale clinical study about the presentation of coronavirus. The study was undertaken to determine the clinical characteristics and epidemiology of coronavirus. This retrospective single-centre\u00a0study involved 138 hospitalised patients who were confirmed to have coronavirus pneumonia at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The researchers looked at the demographics, laboratory data, imaging features and treatment response in these\u00a0patients. They also compared the outcome of non-critically ill patients versus critically-ill patients. The median age for the patients admitted was 56 years and 54.3% of the participants were men.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hospital-acquired transmission affected 40 healthcare professionals (29%) and 17 hospitalised patients (12.3%) in the same ward. Common symptoms included fever in 98.5%\u00a0patients,\u00a0fatigue in 69.6%\u00a0patients\u00a0 and dry cough in 59.4%\u00a0patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blood work revealed lymphopaenia in 70.3% patients, prolonged prothrombin time in 58% patients, and elevated lactate dehydrogenase in 39.9% of\u00a0patients.\u00a0Chest CT scans revealed either ground-glass opacity or bilateral patchy shadows in the lungs of all patients. The majority of patients were prescribed the antiviral drug oseltamivir,\u00a0and some also\u00a0received moxifloxacin,\u00a0ceftriaxone, azithromycin,\u00a0and glucocorticoid therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirty-six patients (26.1%) required admission to the ICU because of complications that included arrhythmias (44.4%). acute respiratory distress syndrome (61.1%]), and shock (30.6%). The median time from the first symptom to the presence of dyspnoea was 5\u00a0days, to hospital admission was 7\u00a0days, and to ARDS was 8\u00a0days. Patients who were managed in the ICU were found to be older, had progressive dyspnoea, anorexia and more likely to have other comorbidity compared to those who did not require ICU admission. Approximately\u00a047.2% of the\u00a0patients required mechanical ventilation. The rest were managed with high flow oxygen therapy.\u00a0 This single-centre\u00a0case study of 138 hospitalised patients with confirmed coronavirus-infected pneumonia revealed that hospital-related transmission of coronavirus was suspected in 41% of the patients; 26% of the patients had to be admitted to the ICU, and mortality was 4.3%.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Source:\u00a0JAMA<\/a>Image Credit: iStock\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nResults<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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