Table 2.
Clinical characteristics of human coronavirus-positive patients
| Clinical presentation | Infection with HCoV | Distributions of HCoV strain | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single HCoV (n = 258) | Co-pathogen (n = 231) | p-Valuea | 229E (n = 65) | OC43 (n = 346) | NL63 (n = 60) | HKU1 (n = 38) | p-Valueb | |
| Upper respiratory tract infection | ||||||||
| Cough | 214 (82.9) | 198 (85.7) | 0.401 | 52 (80.0) | 298 (86.1) | 43 (71.7) | 33 (86.9) | 0.032 |
| Expectoration | 87 (33.7) | 81 (35.0) | 0.755 | 20 (30.8) | 119 (34.4) | 15 (25.0) | 18 (47.4) | 0.137 |
| Rhinorrhea | 87 (33.7) | 87 (37.7) | 0.363 | 24 (36.9) | 123 (35.6) | 21 (35.0) | 13 (34.2) | 0.993 |
| Rhinobyon | 79 (30.6) | 69 (29.9) | 0.857 | 22 (33.9) | 106 (30.6) | 15 (25.0) | 12 (31.6) | 0.747 |
| Sneeze | 10 (3.9) | 10 (4.3) | 0.801 | 4 (6.2) | 16 (4.6) | 2 (3.4) | 0 (0) | – |
| Pharyngeal discomfortc | 17 (6.6) | 15 (6.5) | 0.966 | 8 (12.3) | 22 (6.4) | 4 (6.8) | 3 (7.9) | 0.381 |
| Trachyphonia | 9 (3.5) | 0 (0) | –e | 1 (1.5) | 3 (0.9) | 5 (8.3) | 0 (0) | – |
| Influenza-like symptoms | ||||||||
| Fever (≥ 38 °C) | 143 (55.4) | 153 (66.2) | 0.014 | 38 (58.5) | 213 (61.6) | 32 (53.3) | 23 (60.5) | 0.662 |
| Chills | 8 (3.1) | 11 (4.8) | 0.343 | 3 (4.6) | 16 (4.6) | 1 (1.7) | 1 (2.6) | 0.859 |
| Dizziness | 0 (0) | 1 (0.5) | – | 0 (0) | 1 (0.3) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – |
| Headache | 2 (0.8) | 1 (0.5) | 0.923 | 0 (0) | 3 (0.9) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – |
| Myalgia | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – |
| Debilitation | 1 (0.4) | 2 (0.9) | 0.923 | 0 (0) | 3 (0.9) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – |
| Lower respiratory tract infection | ||||||||
| Bronchopneumonia | 47 (18.2) | 52 (22.5) | 0.238 | 12 (18.5) | 79 (22.8) | 8 (13.3) | 6 (15.8) | 0.295 |
| Pneumonia | 26 (10.1) | 32 (13.9) | 0.197 | 13 (20.0) | 34 (9.8) | 12 (20.0) | 6 (15.8) | 0.026 |
| Asthma | 70 (27.1) | 64 (27.7) | 0.887 | 16 (24.6) | 99 (28.6) | 13 (21.7) | 9 (23.7) | 0.632 |
| Shortness of breath | 35 (13.6) | 28 (12.1) | 0.634 | 7 (10.8) | 42 (12.1) | 9 (15.0) | 6 (15.8) | 0.776 |
| Chest tightness | 1 (0.4) | 0 (0) | – | 0 (0) | 1 (0.3) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – |
| Chest pain | 1 (0.4) | 1 (0.4) | 0.926 | 0 (0) | 2 (0.5) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | – |
| Abnormal pulmonary ralesd | 164 (63.6) | 126 (54.5) | 0.043 | 30 (46.2) | 193 (55.8) | 18 (30.0) | 19 (50.0) | 0.002 |
Data are presented as no. (%) of each group. Percentages sum to over 100% because some patients had more than one diagnosis. Significant differences in bold
aTwo-tailed χ2 test, testing the distribution of each illness or diagnosis between patients infected with a single HCoV type and those co-infected with other type of HCoV or other respiratory pathogen
bTwo-tailed χ2 test, testing the distribution of each illness or diagnosis between the four HCoV types
cIncluding pharyngeal dryness and pharyngalgia
dIncluding phlegm rale, wheeze rale, bubbling rale, moist rale, and laryngeal stridor
eNot performed due to small sample size