Scoping review of COVID-19 research (search done: 24 February 2020)
Citation: Borges do Nascimento IJ, Cacic N, Abdulazeem HM, et al. Novel Coronavirus Infection (COVID-19) in Humans: A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Clinical Medicine 2020; 9: 941
What is this? The COVID-19 pandemic resulted from a novel coronavirus isolated in January 2020 and called SARS-CoV-2. Understanding this infection better will contribute to clinical practice and service planning.
In this rapid scoping review, the authors searched for observational research in humans relating to the clinical, epidemiological, testing and imaging characteristics of SARS-Cov-2. They did not restrict their searches by type or language of publication, and searched for studies published between 1 January 2019 and 24 February 2020. They identified 60 observational studies (59,254 patients) and did meta-analysis of clinical and laboratory data.
What was found: At the time of the review, the included studies showed that the most common co-morbidities for patients with COVID-19 were hypertension, diabetes, chronic liver disease and smoking.
At the time of the review, the included studies showed that the symptoms of COVID-19 are non-specific, with fever (82%) and cough (61%) being most common
At the time of the review, the included studies showed that most cases of COVID-19 were of mild intensity (81%).
At the time of the review, the included studies showed that laboratory findings for COVID-19 included non-specific markers of infection, with many cases having normal results for these markers; and radiological findings for COVID-19 were similar to other viral pneumonias, including opacities and consolidation.
At the time of the review, the included studies showed that the all-cause mortality rate was 0.3%, with mortality being higher in male and elderly patients.