Clinical Profile of First 1000 COVID-19 Cases Admitted at Tertiary Care Hospitals and the Correlates of their Mortality: An Indian Experience

Budhiraja, S.; Soni, A.; Jha, V.; Indrayan, A.; Dewan, A.; Singh, O.; Singh, Y.; Chugh, I.; Arora, V.; Pandey, R.; Ansari, A.; Jha, S.

Objective: To describe the clinical profile and factors leading to increased mortality in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients admitted to a group of hospitals in India. Design: A records-based study of the first 1000 patients with a positive result on real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction assay for SARS-CoV-2 admitted to our facilities. Various factors such as demographics, presenting symptoms, co-morbidities, ICU admission, oxygen requirement and ventilator therapy were studied. Results: Of the 1000 patients, 24 patients were excluded due to lack of sufficient data. Of the remaining 976 in the early phase of the epidemic, males were admitted twice as much as females (67.1% and 32.9%, respectively). Mortality in this initial phase was 10.6% and slightly higher for males and steeply higher for older patients. More than 8% reported no symptoms and the most common presenting symptoms were fever (78.3%), productive cough (37.2%), and dyspnea (30.64%). More than one-half (53.6%) had no co-morbidity. The major co-morbidities were hypertension (23.7%), diabetes without (15.4%), and with complications (9.6%). The co-morbidities were associated with higher ICU admissions, greater use of ventilators as well as higher mortality. A total of 29.9% were admitted to the ICU, with a mortality rate of 32.2%. Mortality was steeply higher in those requiring ventilator support (55.4%) versus those who never required ventilation (1.4%). The total duration of hospital stay was just a day longer in patients admitted to the ICU than those who remained in wards. Conclusion: Male patients above the age of 60 and with co-morbidities faced the highest rates of mortality. They should be admitted to the hospital in early stage of the disease and given aggressive treatment to help reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19.