the clinical characteristics of early cases with 2019 novel coronavirus disease in tabriz, iran

Background and purpose: covid-19 is a new infectious-disease first identified in december 2019 in china, and since it spread globally, it resulted in a pandemic. much research is needed to understand the disease, and especially its clinical characteristics. the aim of present study was to explore the clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of covid-19 in tabriz, iran. materials and methods: this was a case series single center study that focused retrospectively on the clinical characteristics of 140 early consecutive cases with confirmed covid-19, who were hospitalized at one of the referral hospitals for covid-19 patients of tabriz, from march 20 to may 3, 2020. we used patients’ records to obtain the data, which were analyzed by spss version 16 using descriptive and analytic statistics (student’s t-test, mann-whitney’s, and chi-square test). results: findings showed that 34 out of 140 patients deceased. the highest percentage of patients were in the age range of 65 years and over. the most common symptom on admission was dry-cough (67.9%), followed by shortness of breath (55.7%), and fever (51.5%). during hospitalization, 27.1% showed increase in white-blood-cell count. only 20% were ventilated and others received oxygen by cannula, and/or mask.recovered patients reported significant lower rates of pre-existing comorbid conditions than patients who died (p= .02). conclusion this single center study with a relatively small sample size showed that the most common symptom on admission among patients with covid-19 was dry-cough, shortness of breath, and fever. the finding is mostly in accordance with the current evidence seen around the world.