Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19), a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-COV-2), was a global health problem. This new infectious disease was first reported in late November 2019 in Wuhan Province, China. Public health measures such as rapid isolation of patients, PCR testing, and contact tracing faced the health systems in the world with challenges. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Iran’s health care system experienced a severe pressure. Identifying the characteristics of this disease can help make decisions to control the pandemic. In this regard, the present study aims to determine the characteristics and clinical results of patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, Iran.

Methods
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study population includes all patients diagnosed with COVID-19 admitted to Masih Deneshvari Hospital in Tehran from February to May 2020. The diagnosis of COVID-19 in patients was based on the positive result of RT-PCR test with nasal or nasopharyngeal swab or CT scan. The recorded data included demographic information such as age, sex, educational level, occupation, body mass index, as well as the history of smoking, opium use, alcohol consumption, and underlying diseases. Mean and standard deviation were used to describe the quantitative data, while frequency and percentage were used to describe the qualitative data. Chi-square test was used to examine some factors, including the demographic characteristics of patients based on the type of inpatient ward, the history of previous hospitalization, and the discharge status.

Results
In this study, 700 patients were examined. Of these, 451 (64.4%) were male and the rest were female. The mean age of the patients was 56.14±67.89 years. The highest rate of infection (n=184, 26.3%) was in the age group of 56-65 years. Moreover, 640 (91.4%) had an underlying disease, of whom 200 (28.7%) had hypertension. The most common symptoms were shortness of breath (97.8%) and cough (96.4%), while the least prevalent symptoms were olfactory, taste and sore throat disorders. Also, the results showed that the cases with positive PCR test result was a few more than the cases with negative test result, and almost half of the patient had a negative PCR test result. Furthermore, the laboratory values of PLT, LDH and CPK in deceased patients were significantly higher than in recovered patients.

Conclusion
Conducting epidemiological studies during pandemics can lead to the recognition of the features and characteristics of the disease as quickly as possible and increases the power of diagnosis and coping. Having knowledge of history, prevalence, mortality rate, and other related factors can facilitate decision-making for treatment and care of patients with COVID-19.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study has ethical approval from the ethics committee of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.SBMU.NRITLD.REC.1399.175).

Funding
This article was funded by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

Authors' contributions
Writing and investigation: Elham Ghazanchaei; Data collection: Beheshteh Jebelli and Rahim Roozbahani; Data entry: Beheshteh Jebelli; investigation, examining patients, and preparation of the draft: Mohammad Varahram; data analysis and funding acquisition: Mehdi Kazempour Dizaji; extracting data from the hospital information system: Azam Ahmadi.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the patients participated in this study for their cooperation. 



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