Gastrointestinal symptoms affected 26% of hospital employees hospitalized with presumptive COVID-19 infection, according to the results of a study from Wuhan, China.
Among nonmedical personnel in the study (median age, 62 years), 63% of those with GI symptoms were female (P = .03), wrote Zili Zhou of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, and associates. they noted. However, “most patients were still hospitalized at the time of [manuscript] submission, [which made it] difficult to further assess the correlation between GI symptoms and clinical outcomes,” they wrote in Gastroenterology.
Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction has detected COVID-19 in patients’ stool, and COVID-19’s primary receptor for cellular entry, the angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, “is highly expressed not only in lung AT2 cells but also in absorptive enterocytes in the ileum and colon,” the investigators wrote. They compared laboratory and clinical findings among 254 adults with and without GI symptoms who were admitted to Wuhan’s main hospital with presumptive COVID-19 pneumonia between December 20, 2019, and February 9, 2020. All patients were employed by the hospital.
Gastrointestinal symptoms affected 26% of patients and most commonly included diarrhea (18%), nausea (8%), vomiting (6%), and abdominal pain (2%), the researchers reported. Arrhythmias and shock were rare, affecting less than 0.5% of patients. A total of 16 patients (6%) died.
The 161 nonmedical staff in the study were older and, therefore, were evaluated separately from medical staff (respective medians, 36 and 62 years; interquartile ranges, 31-41 years and 49-69 years). Among nonmedical staff, GI symptoms correlated with significantly lower hemoglobin levels (117 g/L [range, 106-127] vs. 133 g/L [range, 114-141], P = .03), and significantly higher levels of C-reactive protein (7.3 mg [range, 2.9-6.6] vs. 3.8 mg (1.8-5.8), P = .021) and alanine aminotransferase (64.1 U/L [range, 51.2-64.4] vs. 46.6 U/L [range, 31.9-61.2]; P = .049). Gastrointestinal symptoms also correlated significantly with fatigue, sore throat, and dizziness. Although the nonmedical cohort included five more males than females, females made up nearly two-thirds (63%) of individuals with GI symptoms (P = .03).
Although 25% of medical staff in the study had GI symptoms, GI symptoms did not correlate with other symptoms or with laboratory findings. This might be because “most of the infected medical staff were younger nurses without comorbidities,” the investigators wrote. “In addition, there [was] less delay from the onset of symptoms to hospital admission.”
For the overall cohort, the most prevalent symptoms were fever (84%), fatigue (52%), productive cough (42%), dry cough (42%), and myalgia (34%). Although these symptoms are typical of COVID-19 infection, most patients were not tested for the virus, “which will inevitably lead to several patients without [COVID-19 pneumonia] being included,” the investigators noted.
The National Nature Science Foundation of China provided funding. The investigators reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.
SOURCE: Zhou Z et al. Gastroenterology. 2020 Mar 18. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2020.03.020.