Clinical and Hematological Characteristics of COVID- 19 at Presentation: Egyptian Multicenter Descriptive Study

Moussa, Abdelmajeed; Zaky, Samy; Hosny, Hossam; Elassal, Gehan; Asem, Noha; Elbadry, Mohamed; El-Raey, Fathiya; Elshemy, Eman; Abdel Baki, Amin; Kamal, Ehab; Maher, Ahmed; Tahoon, Marwa; Baghdady, Shazly; Abdelbary, Akram; Said, Ahmed; Ibrahim, Hamdy; Taema, Khaled; Amin, Wagdy; Balah, Emad; Hodiehed, Amira; Mohamed, Ahmed Shawky; Roshdy, Ahmed; Abdallah, Ahmed; Elnady, Mohamed; Hassany, Mohamed; Hegazy, Mohammad

doi:10.21608/ijma.2021.102062.1381

Clinical and Hematological Characteristics of COVID- 19 at Presentation: Egyptian Multicenter Descriptive Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Tropical Medicine and Gastroenterology, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.

² Department of Hepatogastroenetrology and Infectious diseases, Faculty of Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Egypt.

³ Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

⁴ Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.

⁵ Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

⁶ Department of Endemic Medicine, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.

⁷ Department of Hepatogastroenetrology and Infectious diseases, Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt.

⁸ Department of Hepatogastroenetrology and Infectious Diseases, National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, Cairo, Egypt.

⁹ Tropical Medicine Medical Research Division, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt.

¹⁰ Department of Zoonotic diseases, National Research Center, Giza, Egypt.

¹¹ Department Epidemiology and preventive medicine, National Liver Institute, Menoufia University, Egypt.

¹² Department of Chest Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.

¹³ Department of Critical Care, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

¹⁴ Ministry of Health, Egypt

¹⁵ Department of Infectious Diseases, Damietta Fever Hospital, Ministry of Health, Egypt.

¹⁶ Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology department, Damietta Fever Hospital, Ministry of Health, Egypt.

¹⁷ Department of Chest Diseases and Bronchoscopy, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.

¹⁸ Department of Chest Diseases, Damietta Fevers Hospital, Ministry of Health, Egypt.

10.21608/ijma.2021.102062.1381

Abstract

Background: Since the Ministry of Health and Population [MOHP] in Egypt had declared the appearance of the first COVID- 19 confirmed case in Egypt on February 14, 2020. Strict measures were taken to control the virus spread, including the identification of some centers for triage and others for quarantine.
The aim of the work: The goal of our research was to determine the clinical and hematological results of COVID-19 confirmed patients at two specialized triage hospitals.
Patients and Methods: This was an observational prospective cohort in which we included all adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 by RT-PCR of samples taken by nasopharyngeal swabs attended to two Egyptian hospitals that, assigned by MOHP as a triage center for COVID-19, in the period between 5^th April to 27^th August 2020. The clinical characteristics and hematological findings at presentation were studied.
Results: This study included 200 consecutive COVID-19 confirmed patients from both hospitals, fever [75%] was the main presenting symptom followed by cough [71%] then dyspnea [20%]. [41%] of the patients had lymphopenia, [5%] had lymphocytosis, [11.5%] had neutrophilia, [2%] had thrombocytopenia, and [30.5%] had anemia.
Conclusion: COVID-19 could be presented typically by pulmonary or atypically by various extrapulmonary manifestations in addition to different hematological laboratory findings.

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