Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 12|pp 11296—11305

Clinical characteristics of older and younger patients infected with SARS-CoV-2

Zhiguo Zhou¹, Min Zhang², Yali Wang³, Fang Zheng¹, Yaxiong Huang¹, Kang Huang¹, Qizhi Yu¹, Chunlin Cai¹, Dong Chen¹, Yi Tian², Jianhua Lei², Xinqiang Xiao², Erik De Clercq⁴, Guangdi Li³, Yuanlin Xie¹, Guozhong Gong²

¹The First Hospital of Changsha, Changsha, Hunan, China
²Institute of Hepatology and Department of Infectious Diseases, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
³Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, China
⁴Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute for Medical Research, KU Leuven, Belgium

* Equal contribution

Received: April 9, 2020Accepted: June 11, 2020Published: June 22, 2020

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103535

Copyright © 2020 Zhou et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: SARS-CoV-2 causes high mortality risk in older patients. This study aims to characterize the clinical features of older and younger SARS-CoV-2 infected patients.

Results: A total of 239 patients were divided into the younger group (<60 years; n=181) and the older group (≥60 years; n=58). In both groups, fever and cough were common symptoms. However, dyspnea was more frequent in older patients than younger patients (20.7% versus 9.9%, p=0.032). Compared with younger patients, older patients harbored more severe cases (37.9% versus 17.1%, p=0.001) and comorbidities (58.6% versus 21.0%, p<0.001) such as hypertension and diabetes. The baseline values of eosinophils and C-reactive protein were abnormal in older and younger groups. From baseline to day 14, significant decreases of three biomarkers (C-reactive protein, hemoglobin, albumin) and dramatic increases of three biomarkers (lymphocytes, platelets, blood urea nitrogen) were observed in older patients.

Conclusion: Older and younger patients exhibited differences in dyspnea, comorbidities, and proportions of severe cases. Moreover, the disease progression of SARS-CoV-2 in older patients is observed with the dynamics of laboratory biomarkers, supporting their potential use in disease monitoring.

Methods: We retrieved clinical symptoms, laboratory findings, comorbidities, and hospitalization information of SARS-CoV-2 cases in Changsha.