Table 1.

Comparison of demographic and clinical data of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients with and without diarrhea

	Patients with diarrhea	Patients without diarrhea
No. patients	49	191
Sex (male : female)	1 : 6**	1 : 1.8
Mean age ± 1 SD	38 ± 11.7	40.5 ± 13.7
Amoy Gardens resident	34 (69.4%)*	97 (50.5%)
Mean hemoglobin ± 1 SD on admission (g/dL)	12.9 ± 1	13 ± 1.6
Mean albumin ± 1 SD on admission (g/L)	38.6 ± 3.9*	36.8 ± 4.6
Mean drop in albumin ± 1 SD (g/L)	9.9 ± 4.8	9.5 ± 5.3
Mean potassium ± 1 SD on admission (mmol/L)	3.6 ± 0.4	3.6 ± 0.4
Lowest potassium ± 1 SD (mmol/L)	2.5 ± 0.4*	2.8 ± 0.4
Total potassium supplement ± 1 SD (g)	33.8 ± 14.9	34.8 ± 21.4
Ventilation (%)	4 (8.2%)**	53 (27.6%)
Death (%)	1 (2%)**	31 (16.2%)

Diarrhea was defined as ≥3 times watery or loose stools/day for at least 3 consecutive days.

^* P < 0.05;

^** P < 0.005.