Successful treatment of 28 patients with coronavirus disease 2019 at a medical center in Taiwan

Tsai, Chun-Chou; Wang, Yung-Chih; Chiang, Tsung-Ta; Chen, I-An; Chiu, Chun-Hsiang; Yang, Ya-Sung; Yeh, Kuo-Ming; Chang, Feng-Yee

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a worldwide pandemic. We present the clinical characteristics and outcomes of 28 COVID-19 patients treated in our hospital in Taiwan. Methods Patients with COVID-19, confirmed by positive real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction results for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral nucleic acids from oropharyngeal swab specimens between February 4, 2020 and July 6, 2020, were enrolled. Their clinical characteristics and outcomes were reviewed. Results Seventeen of the 28 patients (60.7%) had pneumonia. The most frequent symptoms were cough (n = 23, 82.1%) and fever (n = 17, 60.7%). The development of pneumonia was associated with age ≥40 years (p <0.024), body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m2 (p = 0.014), fever (p = 0.007), shortness of breath (p = 0.036), chills ((p = 0.047), and lower platelet counts (<200,000/μL) (p = 0.007). Increased quarantine duration was associated with age ≥40 years (p = 0.026), Charlson index ≥1 (p=0.037), lower lymphocyte (<1500/uL; p = 0.028) or platelet counts (<200,000/μL) (p = 0.016), lower serum sodium (<140 mEq/L; p = 0.006), and higher C-reactive protein (CRP) level (≥1mg/dl; p = 0.04). Treatment with hydroxychloroquine or in combination with other medicines did not reduce the quarantine duration. All 28 patients recovered with a median quarantine duration of 27.2 days. Conclusion COVID-19 patients with older age, higher BMI, fever, chills or shortness of breath, lower serum sodium level, lower platelet or lymphocyte count, and higher CRP level may be associated with developing pneumonia or longer quarantine duration.