Materials and Methods
The study included patients who presented to the emergency department of
Atatürk University and the Erzurum City Hospital with symptoms such as
recent-onset fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, and sudden
attenuation of taste and smell, and had returned from travel abroad or
had contact with a suspected COVID-19 patient within the past 14 days.
Before initiating this prospective observational study, ethics committee
approval was obtained from the Erzurum Regional Education Research
Hospital (BEAH KAEK 2019/10-104).
For patients with risk factors for COVID-19, posterior-anterior chest
X-rays were obtained and if suspicious lesions were detected, a more
detailed examination was performed using high-resolution thoracic
computed tomography. COVID-19 diagnosis was made based on real-time PCR
testing of nasopharyngeal swab samples obtained from the patients. The
first SARS-CoV-2-positive patients presented to Erzurum City Hospital
and Atatürk University on March 20 and 24, respectively. This study
included 88 COVID-19 patients treated in the pulmonology and infectious
diseases departments of these centers between March 24 and April 15 and
a control group of 20 asymptomatic healthcare workers who had negative
real-time PCR results during routine COVID-19 screening in our hospital
and volunteered to participate. The patients’ hematological parameters,
biochemical parameters including liver and kidney function tests,
coagulation parameters, ferritin, D-dimer, troponin-I, CRP, and arterial
blood gas parameters were evaluated at admission and daily thereafter.