Results:
Demographic data, clinical characteristics, and main
laboratory findings
During the period between July 2020 and August 2020, a total of 53 mild
non-hospitalized and 48 moderate hospitalized patients with COVID-19
infection were recruited. Demographic, clinical characteristics, and
laboratory investigations, including immunological and inflammatory
biomarkers, were compared between the two groups.
Hospitalized patients were found to be older (58 years vs. 36
years, p < 0.001). On the other hand, there was no
difference in gender distribution (54% of hospitalized vs. 43%
of the non-hospitalized were male, p =0.32). Comorbid conditions
were more frequent in the admitted group, such as diabetes (65 %vs. 21%, p <0.001) and those on oral
hypoglycemic agents/insulin (40 % vs. 6%, p <
0.001).). While shortness of breath was more frequent in hospitalized
patients (80 % vs. 17%, p <0.001), fatigue
(56.6% vs. 20.83%, p <0.001) and diarrhea
(34.0% vs. 14.58%, p=0.037) were reported more in the
non-hospitalized group (Table1).
Hospitalized group had higher inflammatory markers: CRP (114 vs.4 mg/L, p <0.001), LDH (417 vs. 214 U/L,p <0.001), ferritin (760 vs. 196 ng/mL,p <0.001), fibrinogen (6 vs. 3 g/L,p <0.001), D-dimer (1.0 vs. 0.3 mcg/mL,p <0.001), disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC)
score (2.0 vs. 0.0, p <0.001) and higher
neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (4 vs. 1.1, p <0.001)
as shown in Table 2.
Immunological features