Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Patients with COVID-19 in Arak, Iran

Background: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is increasing Here we present the clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 in Arak, Iran Methods: In this study, 139 COVID-19 confirmed cases from 15 February to 15 March 2020 in Arak, Iran, were investigated The clinical signs, symptoms, laboratory and radiological findings and outcomes were analyzed Results: The mean age of the patients was 55 41 years (S D : 17 11) and 55 40% of them were males 26 81% of patients had recently traveled to other epidemic cities The most common clinical manifestations were fever (71 64%), cough (67 16%), shortness of breath (55 22%), muscle ache (50 00%) and the most prevalent complications were taste and smell disruption (29 5%), weakness (22 3%), anorexia (20 1%) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (15 8%) Almost half of the patients had lymphopenia, an elevated level of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) In terms of outcome, 9 3% of patients needed an ICU admission as a result of ARDS in which 15 32% were directly admitted to the ICU 43 2% of patients have been discharged and the case fatality rate (CFR) was estimated as 11 5% Conclusion: COVID-19 pneumonia usually occurred at an age older than 50 years and in the male gender The most common initial clinical laboratories and radiological presentations are fever, cough, lymphopenia with elevated CRP and ESR and Bilateral mixed ground-glass opacities with consolidation © 2020 Mousavi-Hasanzadeh et al