General Characteristics
A total number of 495 patients with typical chest CT feature and symptom consistent with the feature of COVID-19 were included in the study. Figure 1 shows the flowchart of our study. 37.58% (186/495), 6.46% (32/495) and 55.96% (277/495) of these patients had initial positive, suspected and negative RT-PCR results, respectively. Table 1 showed the characteristics of included COVID-19 patients with initial positive or negative RT-PCR result. The mean age was 58.55 years (SEM 0.67) and 254(51.3%) were older than 60 years. There was no significant in gender between the initial positive and negative RT-PCR results group(p༞0.05). And no significant difference of time from onset to hospitalization was observed in patients with initial negative (10.08 ± 0.32 days) and positive (9.64 ± 0.37 days) RT-PCR results, (p༞0.05). 303(61.2%) patients had various comorbid conditions.
Table 1
Characteristics of the included COVID-19 patients
| Positive (n = 186) | Suspicious (n = 32) | Negative (n = 277) | All patients (n = 495) |
Age, years (means ± SEM) | 58.34 ± 0.94 | 60.94 ± 2.66 | 57.75 ± 0.67 | 58.55 ± 0.67 |
Age range, years | | | | |
༜60 | 94(39.00%) | 12(4.98%) | 135(56.02%) | 241 |
≥ 60 | 92(36.22%) | 20(7.87%) | 142(55.91%) | 254 |
Sex | | | | |
male | 85(35.12%) | 11(4.55%) | 146(60.33%) | 242 |
female | 101(39.92%) | 21(8.30%) | 131(51.78%) | 253 |
Mean from onset of symptoms to admission | 10.08 ± 0.32 | 8.09 ± 0.56 | 9.64 ± 0.37 | 9.79 ± 0.23 |
Comorbid conditions | | | | |
Yes | 109(35.97%) | 17(5.61%) | 177(58.42%) | 303 |
No | 77(40.10%) | 15(7.81%) | 100(52.09%) | 192 |
Table 2
Mortality rate of COVID-19 patients with initial negative and positive RT-PCR results
Initial RT-PCR results | n | Common | Severe | Critically | Mortality rate |
Positive | 186 | 115(61.83%) | 41(22.04%) | 30(16.13%) | 19(7.14%) |
Suspicious | 32 | 21(65.63%) | 4(12.50%) | 7(21.88%) | 6(18.75%) |
Negative | 277 | 161(58.12%) | 62(22.39%) | 54(19.49%) | 22(7.94%) |
Mortality rate of COVID-19 patients with initial positive or negative RT-PCR results.
According to the diagnosis standard announced by the Chinese Health Commissioner, 60.00% (297/495), 22.02% (109/495) and 17.98% (89/495) of COVID-19 patients were common, severe and critically type, respectively. No significant difference of disease severity classification was found between the patients with initial positive and negative RT-PCR result, (χ2 = 1.414, p = 0.841). Total mortality rate was 9.49% (47/495). The mortality rate of patients with positive and negative were 7.14% and 7.94%. Patients with initial negative or initial positive RT-PCR results had no significant difference of mortality rate (χ2 = 4.079, p = 0.130).
Lymphocyte ratio, monocyte ratio and PCT level between initial positive and negative RT-PCR results group.
A total number 259 inpatients with data integrity of blood routine were included. The number of patients with lymphocyte ratios under the normal level in initial negative (59/92) was significantly more than that in initial positive (86/167), p = 0.033. The median lymphocyte ratios of the included patients were under the 20%-40%. And there was a significant difference of lymphocyte ratio between the patients with initial negative (15.05(2.30–40.80)) and positive (19.50(0.62-48.0)) RT-PCR results, p = 0.0381, Table 3. Though, there was a significant difference of monocyte rate between the patients with initial negative (6.53 ± 0.34) and positive (7.47 ± 0.26) RT-PCR results, the mean monocyte rates of the included patients were within the normal level. No significant difference of PCT level was observed in patients with initial negative (15.10(0.02–1.430) %) and positive (19.55(0.02–1.470) %) RT-PCR results, p = 0.1123.
Table 3
Lymphocyte rate and monocyte rate of COVID-19 patients with initial RT-PCR results
Results | Positive(n = 167) | Negative (92) | p |
Lymphocyte rate (%) | 19.50(0.62-48.0) | 15.05(2.30–40.80) | 0.0381 |
Monocyte rate (%) | 7.47 ± 0.26 | 6.53 ± 0.34 | 0.0155 |