Clinical course and potential predictive factors for pneumonia of adult patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A retrospective observational analysis of 193 confirmed cases in Thailand

Abstract

Clinical spectrum of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains unclear, especially with regard to the presence of pneumonia. We aimed to describe the clinical course and final outcomes of adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in the full spectrum of disease severity. We also aimed to identify potential predictive factors for COVID-19 pneu-monia. We conducted a retrospective study among adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who were hospitalized at Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute, Thai-land, between January 8 and April 16, 2020. One-hundred-and-ninety-three patients were included. The median (IQR) age was 37.0 (29.0–53.0) years, and 58.5% were male. The median (IQR) incubation period was 5.5 (3.0–8.0) days. More than half (56%) of the patients were mild disease severity, 22% were moderate, 14% were severe, and 3% were critical. Asymptomatic infection was found in 5%. The final clinical outcomes in 189 (97.9%) were recovered and 4 (2.1%) were deceased. The incidence of pneumonia was 39%. The median (IQR) time from onset of illness to pneumonia detection was 7.0 (5.0–9.0) days. Bilateral pneumonia was more prevalent than unilateral pneumonia. In multivariable logistic regres-sion, increasing age (OR 2.55 per 10-year increase from 30 years old; 95% CI, 1.67–3.90; p<0.001), obesity (OR 8.74; 95%CI, 2.06–37.18; p = 0.003), and higher temperature at presentation (OR 4.59 per 1˚C increase from 37.2˚C; 95% CI, 2.30–9.17; p<0.001) were potential predictive factors for COVID-19 pneumonia. Across the spectrum of disease severities, most patients with COVID-19 in our cohort had good final clinical outcomes. COVID-19 pneumonia was found in one-third of them. Older age, obesity, and higher fever at presentation were independent predictors of COVID-19 pneumonia.