Comparative Study on Clinical Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients with or without Digestive Symptoms in Razi Hospital, Ahvaz, Khuzestan

Abstract

Aims: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has emerged as a dire health problem, causing a massive crisis for global health. Background: Most commonly reported clinical manifestations are fever, fatigue and dry cough. Interestingly, a small percentage of patients experience GI symptoms with the most common being anorexia, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. We aimed to investigate a comparable study of COVID-19 patients with or without gastrointestinal patients (GI). Methods: Collective data of clinical manifestations and laboratory reports of patients admitted in Razi Hospital, Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran, during two weeks were analyzed. Results: Our results showed that GI symptoms are not statistically significant criteria to be predictive or prognostic factors in the COVID-19 patients despite they are probably related to acute or non-acute phase of the disease. Moreover, non-specific GI symptoms seem to be as a result of cytokine storm occurred during the disease. Conclusion: Therefore, our results did not support GI tract involvement as a common route of COVID-19 infection. Maybe future research will shed light on why and how the gastrointestinal system became infected by COVID-19.