Table 2.
Clinical symptoms and laboratory characteristics of patients at four time points, compared using the chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test
| Time | Baseline | 1–6 days | 7–13 days | ≥ 14 days | p value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of patients | 29 | 29 | 27 | 28 | |
| Clinical symptoms | |||||
| Fever | 25 | 24 | 5 | 3 | < 0.001 |
| Sore throat | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0.668 |
| Cough | 24 | 24 | 11 | 7 | < 0.001 |
| Dyspnea | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0.169 |
| Shortness of breath | 0 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 0.001 |
| Chest pain or oppression in chest | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0.921 |
| Fatigue | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 | < 0.001 |
| Myalgia | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.035 |
| Digestive symptoms | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0.191 |
| Asymptomatic | 1 | 0 | 9 | 13 | < 0.001 |
| Laboratory characteristics | |||||
| White blood cell count (normal range 3.5–9.5 × 109/L) | 4.8 (3.7, 6.0) | 5.4 (4.4, 6.5) | 6.4 (5.6, 7.1) | 6.4 (4.6, 7.9) | 0.066 |
| Lymphocyte count (normal range 1.1–3.2 × 109/L) | 1.0 (0.9, 1.4) | 0.9 (0.7, 1.3) | 1.4 (1.1, 1.6) | 1.4 (1.2, 1.6) | 0.001 |
| C-reactive protein (normal range 0–10 mg/L) | 9.9 (4.9, 30.2) | 14.6 (4.3, 32.9) | 6.1 (1.0, 17.8) | 5.7 (2.5, 15.4) | 0.004 |
| Interleukin-6 (normal range 0–7 pg/ml) | 5.4 (1.3, 20.3) | 7.8 (1.0, 19.1) | 1.9 (1.0, 8.2) | 1.5 (1.0, 2.0) | 0.013 |
| Oxygenation index (mmHg) | 387.7 (323.9, 485.9) | 312.1 (230.3, 408.3) | 389.7 (279.3, 452.4) | 417.2 (342.4, 514.3) | 0.008 |
Quantitative data were presented as median (Q25–Q75), using Kruskal-Wallis H test. Categorical data are presented as count, using chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test to calculate p values as appropriate. P < 0.05 was regarded as significantly different between four groups