Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 16, 2022; 10(8): 2404-2419
Published online Mar 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i8.2404
Epidemiological features and dynamic changes in blood biochemical indices for COVID-19 patients in Hebi
Xiao-Bo Nie, Bao-Sheng Shi, Lin Zhang, Wei-Li Niu, Ting Xue, Lan-Qing Li, Xiao-Yun Wei, Yan-Dong Wang, Wei-Dong Chen, Rui-Fang Hou
Xiao-Bo Nie, Ting Xue, Lan-Qing Li, Xiao-Yun Wei, Wei-Dong Chen, Key Laboratory of Receptors-Mediated Gene Regulation, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, Henan Province, China
Xiao-Bo Nie, Wei-Dong Chen, Department of Infectious Diseases,The People’s Hospital of Hebi, Hebi 458031, Henan Province, China
Bao-Sheng Shi, Lin Zhang, Wei-Li Niu, Department of Infectious Diseases, The Third People’s Hospital of Hebi, Hebi 458031, Henan Province, China
Yan-Dong Wang, College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, Beijing Province, China
Rui-Fang Hou, Department of Infectious Diseases, The People’s Hospital of Hebi, Henan University, Hebi Key Laboratory of Liver Disease, Hebi 458031, Henan Province, China
Author contributions: Nie XB and Hou RF designed the research study; Shi BS, Zhang L, Niu WL, Xue T, Li LQ and Wei XY performed the research; Wang YD and Chen WD contributed analytic tools; Nie XB analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Hou RF revised the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the (Ethics Committee of People’s Hospital of Hebi) Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 2020004).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: (Nie XB, Xue T, Li LQ, Wei XY, Wei-Dong Chen) are employees of (Key Laboratory of Receptors-Mediated Gene Regulation, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Henan University). Hou RF is an employee of (Hebi Key Laboratory of Liver Disease, The People’s Hospital of Hebi, Henan University). (Shi BS, Zhang L, Niu WL) are employees of (The Third People’s Hospital of Hebi). Wang YD is an employee of (State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology). The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at dr_rfhou@126.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rui-Fang Hou, Doctor, MD, Chairman, Doctor, Department of Infectious Diseases, The People’s Hospital of Hebi, Henan University, Hebi Key Laboratory of Liver Disease, Jiuzhou Street, Qibin District, Hebi 458031, Henan Province, China. dr_rfhou@126.com
Received: July 16, 2021
Peer-review started: July 16, 2021
First decision: October 16, 2021
Revised: October 20, 2021
Accepted: January 19, 2022
Article in press: January 19, 2022
Published online: March 16, 2022
Processing time: 237 Days and 10.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Millions of people have died of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, and retrospective studies of the disease in local regions are necessary.

AIM

To characterize the epidemiological features and dynamic changes in blood biochemical indices for SARS-CoV-2-infected patients in Hebi, a representative city with a large floating population in North China.

METHODS

From January 25 to February 10, 2020, the clinical data of patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in Hebi city (China) were evaluated at admission, and laboratory data for hematologic parameters, inflammatory indices, coagulation function indices, liver function indices, blood lipid indices, renal function indices, myocardial enzyme activities and five blood biochemical markers of immunity were evaluated at admission, upon hospitalization and before discharge.

RESULTS

Sixteen confirmed COVID-19 patients developed pneumonia but were cured after adequate treatment. Fever and fatigue were the common symptoms. The most common laboratory abnormalities of patients at admission were leukopenia, eosinopenia, decreased percentage of eosinophils, elevated high sensitivity C-reactive protein and fibrinogen levels, hypoalbuminemia, mildly increased aspartate transferase activity and levels of bilirubin, and increased levels of β2-microglobulin. Importantly, aggravated liver dysfunction was detected in most patients, which may be partially attributed to virus infection as well as medicinal treatment.

CONCLUSION

This study provides several potential diagnostic markers and dynamic biochemical indices of disease progression to better prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19 infection.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemiology; Blood biochemical indices; Computed tomography imaging; Liver dysfunction

Core Tip: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still spreading across the world since the outbreak in 2020, and has caused millions of deaths. Although severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mass vaccination has effectively inhibited this epidemic, the emergence of new mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 is still challenging the current prevention and treatment of COVID-19. In this retrospective study, we aimed to characterize the epidemiological features and evaluate the dynamic changes in blood biochemical indices for COVID-19 patients in Hebi, a representative city with a large floating population in North China.