Characteristic of hospitalized COVID 19 patients with gastrointestinal manifestation and liver injury

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is known to affect the digestive and liver systems. These can occur during the disease, and the prevalence was varied widely. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms and liver injury. Methods: The data collected from the first 3 months of COVID-19 hospitalized patients (April – June 2020). We analyzed patients with gastrointestinal symptoms (nausea or vomiting, abdominal discomfort or pain, diarrhea, and anorexia) and patients with liver injury (alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (> 45 U/L for men and > 34 U/L for women) or aspartate aminotransferase (AST) level (> 35 U/L for men and > 31 U/L for women) at admission), then compared their clinical features with those who did not show gastrointestinal symptoms and liver injury. Results: A total of 232 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were included. Gastrointestinal symptoms were found in 16.4% of patients. The symptoms were diarrhea (3.01%), anorexia (1.72%), nausea or vomiting (12.06%), and abdominal pain or discomfort (1.72%). The patients with gastrointestinal symptoms were more likely than those without to be admitted to the intensive ward (13.15% vs. 2.5%; p= 0.012). The elevation of liver aminotransferase levels on admission was found in 40.9% of patients. Longer hospitalization (15 days vs 11 days; p= 0.007) more likely to have liver injury. Conclusion: Patients with liver injury had a longer hospital stay than patients without liver injury, while gastrointestinal symptoms have no significance on the duration of hospitalization.