Patient characteristics
A total of 289 consecutive patients recovering from severe COVID-19 were
screened initially, from February 1 to April 1, 2020. Figure 1 shows a
flowchart for patient recruitment. Of them, 24 patients (8.3%) suffered
different degrees of palpitation symptom. After excluding 2 patients who
refused to provide informed consent, 22 patients were included in this
prospective, cohort study.
The details of all the characteristics were presented in the Table1. In
total, the median age was 52 years (IQR, 44-62 years), 12 (54.5%)
patients were female, and the median length of hospital stay was 24 days
(IQR, 19-28 days). Half of these patients had chronic diseases,
including 8 (36.3%) with hypertension, 3 (13.6%) with diabetes, 3
(13.6%) with chronic renal disease, 2 (9.1%) with coronary heart
disease, 1 (4.5%) with chronic heart failure, 1 (4.5%) with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease, and 1 (4.5%) with cancer. Many patients
presented with organ function damage during hospitalization, including 4
(18.2%) with acute respiratory distress syndrome, 4 (18.2%) with acute
myocardial injury, 3 (13.6%) with acute liver injury, 2 (9.1%) with
acute renal injury, and 2 (9.1%) with coagulopathy. For treatment, 19
(86.4%), 17 (77.3%), 15 (68.2%) and 15 (68.2%) patients,
respectively, received antiviral drugs, antibiotics, glucocorticoids,
and immunoglobulin. 4 (18.2%) patients used non-invasive ventilator
mechanical ventilation, and 1 (4.5%) patient received continuous renal
replacement therapy. No patients underwent invasive mechanical
ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.