Characteristics and outcomes of 231 COVID-19 cases admitted at a tertiary facility in India: An observational cohort study

Rohit Kumar; Bisakh Bhattacharya; Ved Prakash Meena; Anivita Aggarwal; Manasi Tripathi; Manish Soneja; Ankit Mittal; Komal Singh; Nishkarsh Gupta; Rakesh Kumar Garg; Brajesh Kumar Ratre; Balbir Kumar; Shweta Arun Bhopale; Pavan Tiwari; Ankit Verma; Sushma Bhatnagar; Anant Mohan; Naveet Wig; Randeep Guleria

doi:10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1198_20

Characteristics and outcomes of 231 COVID-19 cases admitted at a tertiary facility in India: An observational cohort study

J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 Dec 31;9(12):6267-6272. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1198_20. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Rohit Kumar¹, Bisakh Bhattacharya¹, Ved Prakash Meena¹, Anivita Aggarwal¹, Manasi Tripathi², Manish Soneja¹, Ankit Mittal¹, Komal Singh¹, Nishkarsh Gupta³, Rakesh Kumar Garg³, Brajesh Kumar Ratre³, Balbir Kumar³, Shweta Arun Bhopale³, Pavan Tiwari⁴, Ankit Verma⁵, Sushma Bhatnagar³, Anant Mohan⁴, Naveet Wig¹, Randeep Guleria⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
² Department of Ophthalmology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
³ Department of Onco-anesthesia and Palliative Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
⁴ Department of Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorders, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
⁵ Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.

Abstract

Background: Ongoing pandemic because of COVID-19 has spread across countries, with varied clinical features and severity. Awareness of clinical course among asymptomatic and symptomatology in symptomatic cases is essential for patients' management as well as optimal utilization of health services (in resource limited settings) based on clinical status and risk factors. This study aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients admitted with COVID-19 illness in the initial phase of the pandemic in India.

Methods: It was an observational study. Patients aged 18 years or more, with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, asymptomatic or mildly ill, were included. Patients with moderate-severe disease at admission or incomplete clinical symptomatology records were excluded. Data regarding demography, comorbidities, clinical features and course, treatment, results of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR, chest radiographs, and laboratory parameters were obtained retrospectively from hospital records. The outcome was noted in terms of course, patients discharged, still admitted (at the time of the study), or death.

Results: Out of 231 cases, most were males (78.3%) with a mean age of 39.8 years. Comorbidities were present in 21.2% of patients, diabetes mellitus and hypertension being the most common. The most common symptoms were dry cough (81, 35%), fever (64, 27.7%), sore throat (36, 15.6%); asymptomatic infection noted in 108 (46.8%) patients. The presence of comorbidities was an independent predictor of symptomatic disease (OR-2.66; 95%CI 1.08-6.53, P = 0·03). None of the patients progressed to moderate-severe COVID-19, and there were no deaths.

Conclusions: A large proportion of patients remained asymptomatic whereas those with comorbidities were more likely to be symptomatic. Most with mild disease had a stable disease course, barring few complication in those with comorbidities. The pandemic continues to grow as large number of asymptomatic cases may go undiagnosed.

Keywords: Asymptomatic; COVID-19; characteristics; outcomes.