Clinical characteristics and drug therapies in patients with the common-type coronavirus disease 2019 in Hunan, China

Background Clinical characteristics of patients with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may present differently within and outside the epicenter of Wuhan, China. More clinical investigations are needed. Objective The study was aimed to describe the clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, and therapeutic methods of COVID-19 patients in Hunan, China. Setting The First Hospital of Changsha, First People’s Hospital of Huaihua, and the Central Hospital of Loudi, Hunan province, China. Methods This was a retrospective multi-center case-series analysis. Patients with confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis hospitalized at the study centers from January 17 to February 10, 2020, were included. The following data were obtained from electronic medical records: demographics, medical history, exposure history, underlying comorbidities, symptoms, signs, laboratory findings, computer tomography scans, and treatment measures. Main outcome measure Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics and treatments. Results A total of 54 patients were included (51 had the common-type COVID-19, three had the severe-type), the median age was 41, and 52% of them were men. The median time from the first symptoms to hospital admission was seven days. Among patients with the common-type COVID-19, the median length of stay was nine days, and 21 days among patients with severe COVID-19. The most common symptoms at the onset of illness were fever (74.5%), cough (56.9%), and fatigue (43.1%) among patients in the common-type group. Fourteen patients (37.8%) had a reduced WBC count, 23 (62.2%) had reduced eosinophil ratio, and 21 (56.76%) had decreased eosinophil count. The most common patterns on chest-computed tomography were ground-glass opacity (52.2%) and patchy bilateral shadowing (73.9%). Pharmacotherapy included recombinant human interferon α2b, lopinavir/ritonavir, novaferon, antibiotics, systematic corticosteroids and traditional Chinese medicine prescription. The outcome of treatment indicated that in patients with the common-type COVID-19, interferon-α2b, but not novaferon, had some benefits, antibiotics treatment was not needed, and corticosteroids should be used cautiously. Conclusion As of February 10, 2020, the symptoms of COVID-19 patients in Hunan province were relatively mild comparing to patients in Wuhan, the epicenter. We observed some treatment benefits with interferon-α2b and corticosteroid therapies but not with novaferon and antibiotic treatment in our study population. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s11096-020-01031-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.