Researchers have analyzed the records of 85 individuals who died with COVID-19 in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan, China. The analysis revealed that the majority of those patients had a few consistent factors in common.
A team of investigators hailing from eight institutions in China and the United States — including the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing, and the University of California – Davis — recently looked at the data of 85 patients who died of multiple organ failure after having received care for severe COVID-19.
All individuals whose data the study used received care at either the Hanan Hospital or the Wuhan Union Hospital between January 9 and February 15, 2020.
The researchers who conducted the study uncovered a series of factors that the majority of these patients shared.
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They report their findings in a study paper that appears in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The research team was able to access and analyze the deceased patients’ medical histories, including whether they had any underlying, chronic conditions.
The researchers were also able to find out what symptoms the patients experienced once they had contracted the virus and access information from laboratory tests and CT scans, as well as information about the medical treatment they received while in the hospitals.
They found that 72.9% of those who died with COVID-19 were male, with a median age of 65.8 years and underlying chronic conditions, such as heart problems or diabetes.
“The greatest number of deaths in our cohort were in males over 50 with noncommunicable chronic diseases,” the investigators note.
“We hope that this study conveys the seriousness of COVID-19 and emphasizes the risk groups of males over 50 with chronic comorbid conditions, including hypertension (high blood pressure), coronary heart disease, and diabetes,” they have commented.
The team also notes that, among the 85 patients whose records they analyzed, the most common COVID-19