RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Clinicopathological characteristics of 8697 patients with COVID-19 in China: a meta-analysis
JF Family Medicine and Community Health
JO Fam Med Com Health
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e000406
DO 10.1136/fmch-2020-000406
VO 8
IS 2
A1 Jieyun Zhu
A1 Zhimei Zhong
A1 Pan Ji
A1 Hongyuan Li
A1 Bocheng Li
A1 Jielong Pang
A1 Jianfeng Zhang
A1 Chunling Zhao
YR 2020
UL http://fmch.bmj.com/content/8/2/e000406.abstract
AB Objective Our study aims to present a summary of the clinicopathological characteristics of patients affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that can be used as a reference for further research and clinical decisions.Design Studies were included in the meta-analysis if they had cohort, case–control or case series designs and provided sufficient details on clinical symptoms, laboratory outcomes and asymptomatic patients.Setting PubMed, Embase, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Wanfang, China Science and Technology Journal Database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases were electronically searched to identify related studies published between 1 January 2020 and 16 March 2020. Three reviewers independently examined the literature, extracted relevant data and assessed the risk of publication bias before including the studies in the meta-analysis.Participants The confirmed cases of COVID-19.Results A total of 55 unique retrospective studies involving 8697 patients with COVID-19 were identified. Meta-analysis showed that a higher proportion of infected patients were male (53.3%), and the two major symptoms observed were fever (78.4%) and cough (58.3%). Other common symptoms included fatigue (34%), myalgia (21.9%), expectoration (23.7%), anorexia (22.9%), chest tightness (22.9%) and dyspnoea (20.6%). Minor symptoms included nausea and vomiting (6.6%), diarrhoea (8.2%), headache (11.3%), pharyngalgia (11.6%), shivering (15.2%) and rhinorrhea (7.3%). About 5.4% of the patients were asymptomatic. Most patients showed normal leucocyte counts (64.7%) and elevated C reactive protein levels (65.9%). Lymphopaenia was observed in about 47.6% of the infected patients, along with abnormal levels of myocardial enzymes (49.4%) and liver function (26.4%). Other findings included leucopenia (23.5%), elevated D-dimer (20.4%), elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (20.4%), leucocytosis (9.9%), elevated procalcitonin (16.7%) and abnormal renal function (10.9%).Conclusions The most commonly experienced symptoms of patients with COVID-19 were fever and cough. Myalgia, anorexia, chest tightness and dyspnoea were found in some patients. A relatively small percentage of patients were asymptomatic and could act as carriers of the disease. Most patients showed normal leucocyte counts, elevated levels of C reactive protein and lymphopaenia, confirming the viral origin of the disease.