Apr 13 Differences between COVID-19 and suspected then confirmed SARS-CoV-2-negative pneumonia: a retrospective study from a single center
Xinyi Chen, Yi Yang, Min Huang, Lili Liu1, Xianxiang Zhang, Jing Xu1, Shaoqing Geng, Bo Han, Jiangfeng Xiao, Yanyun Wan
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) broke out in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019. Tens of thousands of people have been infected with the disease.
Our aim was to distinguish between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positive patients from SARS-CoV-2 negative patients.
We retrospectively compared data from patients with COVID-19 with those from suspected and confirmed negative SARS-CoV-2 patients (control patients). There were 78 COVID-19 patients and 26 control patients, whose median age was significantly different (P = 0,001). The percentage of COVID-19 patients who admitted to being exposed in Wuhan was obviously higher than that of control patients (X2 = 29.130, P < 0,001).
Fever and cough appeared more frequently in patients with COVID-19 than in control patients.
The routine blood test parameters of the COVID-19 patients did not change much, and their mean counts were in the normal range.
There were 38.5% of control patients who had procalcitonin (PCT) levels greater than 0,5ng/mL, significantly higher than in COVID-19 patients (X2 = 22.636, P < 0,05).
COVID-19 patients were also more likely to have decreased or normal urea and creatinine levels than control patients (X2 = 24.930, 8.480, P < 0,05).
Younger age, exposure in Wuhan, fever, cough, and mild changes in routine blood test parameters such as urea and creatinine were important features that discriminated COVID-19 patients from control patients.
A slight increase, but much less than 0.5ng/mL, in PCT levels also differentiated COVID-19 patients from control patients.