Analysis clinical features of COVID-19 infection in secondary epidemic area and report potential biomarkers in evaluation

  1. Weiping Ji
  2. Gautam Bishnu
  3. Zhenzhai Cai
  4. Xian Shen

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Abstract

Objective

Based on the clinical characteristics of infected patients with novel coronavirus in secondary epidemic areas, we aimed to identify potential biomarkers for the evaluation of novel coronavirus-infected patients, guide the diagnosis and treatment of this disease in secondary epidemic areas and provide a reference for the clinical prevention and control of this epidemic situation.

Methods

The clinical data of 33 patients with respiratory symptoms caused by the novel coronavirus in Wenzhou city from January 15 to February 12, 2020, were thoroughly reviewed. At the onset of the disease, we found that the primary symptoms were fever, cough, fatigue, chest tightness, chest pain and specific blood test results. According to the patients’ histories, the patients were divided into two groups: those who spent time in the main epidemic area and those who did not spend time in the main epidemic area. The differences in the clinical manifestations between these two groups were analyzed.

Results

The main clinical symptoms of patients infected with novel coronavirus in the secondary epidemic area were respiratory tract ailments and systemic symptoms. After grouping patients based on the presence or absence of residency in or travel history to the main epidemic area, there was no significant difference between the baseline data of these two groups, and there were no significant differences in symptoms and signs between the two groups (P>0.05). Some patients had abnormally increased serum amyloid protein A (SAA). There were statistically significant differences in the leukocyte count/C-reactive protein, monocyte ratio/C-reactive protein, neutrophil count/C-reactive protein, monocyte count/C-reactive protein and hemoglobin/C-reactive protein values between the two groups (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Respiratory tract ailments and systemic symptoms were the primary symptoms of novel coronavirus infection in the secondary epidemic area; these symptoms are not typical. The abnormal increase in serum amyloid protein (SAA) may be used as an auxiliary index for diagnosis and treatment. CRP changes before other blood parameters and thus may be an effective evaluation index for patients with COVID-19 infection.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.10.20033613: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: All patients gave signed, informed consent for their dates to be used for scientific research.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.03.10.20033613v1 on medRxiv