Introduction
Ever
since the
new
coronavirus (COVID-19) pneumonia emerged in Wuhan, China, in December
2019, it has rapidly spread throughout the world, resulting in high
mortality. According to the World
Health Organization (WHO) reports,
about
80% of patients with COVID-19 infection have mild symptoms, whereas
about 5% have severe symptoms. The latter group of patients shows more
than 50% mortality. On 11th March 2020, WHO assessed
that the COVID-19 infection could be characterised as a
pandemic1. However,
there is insufficient knowledge on the pathophysiological parameters,
particularly mortality indicators, to understand the mechanism involved
in the COVID-19 infection. Clinical and pathological features of
patients with COVID-19 have recently been reported, showing that the
COVID-19 infection causes clusters of severe and even fatal pneumonia
with a clinical presentation that greatly resembled that of severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV infection. COVID-19 is also associated
with admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), and high mortality2,3.
Several potential drug candidates, including lopinavir/ritonavir,
nucleoside analogues, neuraminidase inhibitors, remdesivir, chloroquine,
and Chinese traditional medicines (such as Lianhua Qing-wen capsules),
have been proposed4,5.
No vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for the COVID-19 infection
has been shown to be effective yet; hence, supportive therapy that
provides symptomatic relief and protects the multi-organ functions may
be beneficial. Identifying or treating high risk patients more promptly
is crucial for decreasing the mortality rate. However, lack of clinical
data of critically ill patients with COVID-19 promotes this study in
Tongji Hospital where was urgently reconstructed and assigned by the
Chinese government as a hospital designated for severely or critically
ill COVID-19 patients.
In this study, we performed a comprehensive analysis and aimed to
summarise
the
severe clinical manifestations of patients with COVID-19 infection.
Therefore, this study helped in gaining a better understanding of the
risk factors and outcomes of the COVID-19 infection, ultimately helping
in guiding the efforts aimed at reducing the fatality rate.