Related Articles Clinical Features and Treatment of COVID 19 Patients in Northeast Chongqing J Med Virol 2020 Mar 21 Authors Wan S Xiang Y Fang W Zheng Y Li B Hu Y Lang C Huang D Sun Q Xiong Y Huang X Lv J Luo Y Shen L Yang H Huang G Yang R Abstract BACKGROUND The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China SARS CoV 2 that began in December 2019 presents a significant and urgent threat to global health This study was conducted to provide the international community with a deeper understanding of this new infectious disease METHODS Epidemiological clinical features laboratory findings radiological characteristics treatment and clinical outcomes of 135 patients in northeast Chongqing were collected and analyzed in this study RESULTS A total of 135 hospitalized patients with COVID 19 were enrolled The median age was 47 years IQR 36 55 and there was no significant gender difference 53 3 men The majority of patients had contact with people from the Wuhan area Forty three 31 9 patients had underlying disease primarily hypertension 13 9 6 diabetes 12 8 9 cardiovascular disease 7 5 2 and malignancy 4 3 0 Common symptoms included fever 120 88 9 cough 102 76 5 and fatigue 44 32 5 Chest CT scans showed bilateral patchy shadows or ground glass opacity in the lungs of all of the patients All of the patients received antiviral therapy 135 100 Kaletra and interferon were both used antibacterial therapy 59 43 7 and corticosteroids 36 26 7 In addition many patients received traditional Chinese medicine 124 91 8 It is suggested that patients should receive Kaletra early and should be treated by a combination of western and Chinese medicine Compared with the mild cases the severe cases had lower lymphocyte counts and higher plasma levels of Pt APTT D dimer LDH PCT ALB CRP and AST CONCLUSION In this study the clinic features and therapies of 135 COVID 19 patients were demonstrated Kaletra and traditional Chinese medicine played an important role in the treatment of the viral pneumonia Further studies are required to explore the role of Kaletra and traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of COVID 19 This article is protected by copyright All rights reserved PMID 32198776 PubMed as supplied by publisher