History of Coronary Heart Disease Increases the Mortality Rate of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients: A Nested Case-Control Study Based on Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases in Mainland China

Tian Gu; Qiao Chu; Zhangsheng Yu; Botao Fa; Anqi Li; Lei Xu; Ruijun Wu; Yaping He

Since the first report of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, the novel virus infection has rapidly spread to other cities in China, and has now been detected in 186 countries and locations internationally [1] . On March 11 th , 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and has called for aggressive actions from all countries to fight the disease. Current research has indicated that COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a betacoronavirus similar to the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in the genetic sequence [2] . Epidemiological evidence suggests that initially reported cases in China had a history of exposure to the Huanan seafood market [3] [4] . With the escalated spread of the infection, there has been clear evidence of human to human transmission [5] [6] . The most common symptoms include fever, dry cough and fatigue [5] [6] [7] [8] , with presence of asymptomatic, yet contagious cases [9] .