Clinical Presentation of Iranian Patients Affected with COVID-19: A Thousand Faces Disease

Ali Mostafaei; Morteza Ghojazadeh; Sakineh Hajebrahimi; Nasrin Abolhasanpour; Hanieh  Salehi-Pourmehr

doi:10.18502/ijaai.v20i2.6047

Ali Mostafaei Research Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Iranian EBM Center: A Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Center of Excellence, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Morteza Ghojazadeh Research Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Iranian EBM Center: A Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Center of Excellence, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Sakineh Hajebrahimi Research Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Iranian EBM Center: A Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Center of Excellence, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Nasrin Abolhasanpour Research Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Iranian EBM Center: A Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Center of Excellence, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Hanieh Salehi-Pourmehr Research Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Iranian EBM Center: A Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Center of Excellence, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ijaai.v20i2.6047

Keywords: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Iran; Mortality

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Iran is part of the worldwide pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The present study aimed to demonstrate the clinical characteristics of patients affected by COVID-19, in our tertiary teaching hospital. Medical records and compiled data of 668 patients with suspected COVID-19 were obtained retrospectively between January to April 2020. The present study outcomes included demographic features of infected patients, underlying diseases and conditions, the relationship between the results of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or CT-scan with the manifestations of the disease, mortality rate, and age distribution of fatalities among men and women. The median age of hospitalized patients was 63 years old (from 18 to 94). The patients’ chief complaints in the admission time were cough, dyspnea, fever, and gastrointestinal problems, respectively. Hospitalized patients' common comorbidities were hypertension (HTN), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) (24%), diabetes mellitus (DM) (21.5%), asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (6%), or other underlying diseases (15.5%). One-third of patients had no comorbidity according to the data of medical records. In hospitalized patients, 169 (84.5%) had positive RT-PCR, and 156 (78%) had positive chest CT findings. The mortality rate of males was higher than females (66.3% vs. 33.3%) and in patients with positive RT-PCR compared to patients with positive chest CT-scan findings. The majority of deaths had a history of DM or HTN/CVD in their medical records. The chief complaint of patients was cough. DM and HTN or CVD were the common underlying disease related to death in hospitalized cases. Besides, the hospitalization and mortality rate in males was higher than in females. About 87% of dead hospitalized cases had positive RT-PCR results, and this rate was 82% for chest CT results.