Clinical characteristics of 194 cases of COVID-19 in Huanggang and Taian, China

PURPOSE: We aimed to report the clinical characteristics of 194 cases coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) in Huanggang, Hubei and Taian, Shandong. METHODS: We retrospectively investigated the clinical, laboratory characteristics and CT imaging of confirmed cases of COVID-19 from January 22 to February 28, 2020 in Huanggang Central Hospital and The Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University. Real time PCR was used to detect the new coronavirus in respiratory samples. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expressions of ACE2 in tissues. RESULTS: Among the 194 patients infected with COVID-19, 108 patients were male, with a median age of 48.3 years. The average preclinical period was 7.44 day. Except for 37 severe or critically ill patients, the rest of the 157 patients exhibited mild or moderate symptoms. 190 (97.94%) patients were confirmed during the three times nucleic acid test. The main clinical symptom of the patients were fever, sore throat and cough, which accounted for 146 cases (75.26%), 98 (50.52%) and 86 cases (44.33%), respectively. 30 patients (15.46%) showed liver dysfunction. Imaging examination showed that 141 patients (72.68%) showed abnormal density shadow, while 53 cases (27.32%) had no obvious abnormality in the parenchyma of both lungs. Up to now, 109 cases have been discharged from the hospital, and 9 patients died. The ACE2 expression levels were up-regulated in patients of severe type and critically ill type. CONCLUSION: Clinical symptoms, laboratory tests and CT imaging should be combined for comprehensive analysis to diagnose COVID-19. ACE2 may be the receptor of COVID-19. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s15010-020-01440-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.