Clinical, radiological and therapeutic characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly spreading global pandemic. The clinical characteristics of COVID-19 have been reported; however, there is limited research investigating the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in the Middle East. This study aims to investigate the clinical, radiological and therapeutic characteristics of patients diagnosed with COVID19 in Saudi Arabia. Methods This study is a retrospective single-centre case series study. We extracted data for patients who were admitted to the Al-Noor Specialist Hospital with a PCR confirming SARS-COV-2 between 12th and 31st of March 2020. Descriptive statistics were used to describe patients' characteristics. Continuous data were reported as mean ± SD. Chi-squared test/Fisher test were used as appropriate to compare proportions for categorical variables. Results A total of 150 patients were hospitalised for COVID-19 during the study period. The mean age was 46.1 years (SD: 15.3 years). The most common comorbidities were hypertension (28.8%, n = 42) and diabetes mellitus (26.0%, n = 38). Regarding the severity of the hospitalised patients, 105 patients (70.0%) were mild, 29 (19.3%) were moderate, and 16 patients (10.7%) were severe or required ICU care. Conclusion This case series provides clinical, radiological and therapeutic characteristics of hospitalised patients with confirmed COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.