MANIFESTATIONS OF DIGESTIVE SYSTEM IN ACUTE PERIOD OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE

Abstract

Introduction.Nowadays, coronavirus disease is reported a systemic disease, which impairs immune function, lung and gastrointestinal damage. The latter, along with the respiratory system, can serve as the entry gate to infection. Chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract are considered as risk factors for more severe course of the disease. Objective: to study the frequency of gastrointestinal symptoms and liver functioning in patients with coronavirus disease. Materials and methods: 55 medical records of inpatients with coronavirus disease and pneumonia (20 women and 35 men), who were treated at the infectious department of the Central Municipal Clinical Hospital, Ivano-Frankivsk. The mean age of female patients was 57.1 ± 2.62 years and 59.2 ± 2.59 years for male patients. All patients underwent polymerase chain reaction testing and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IgM SARS COV 2), general clinical examinations (general blood test, biochemical analysis of live damage markers, glycemia level), chest CT. We determined inflammatory biomarkers as well. Results and discussion. The patients with coronaviral disease and pneumonia were found to have various comorbidities, including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, chronic viral hepatitis B and others. The most common gastrointestinal symptoms included anorexia detected in 50 patients (90.9%), nausea in 11 (20%) patients, diarrhoea in 6 (10.9%) patients, vomiting in 2 (363%) patients, abdominal pain in 4 (7.27%) patients, and constipation in 1 (1.8%) case. Diarrhea usually did not pose a serious threat, and was reversible in the course of pneumonia therapy. Thrombocytopenia occurred in 10.9% of patients. The level of C-reactive protein was high in 90.9% of patients. A third of the patients demonstrated as increase in the activity of aspartate aminotransferase by 30.9% and alanine aminotransferase by 32.7%. Conclusion. Coronavirus can induce inflammation and change the permeability of mucous membranes, possibly receptor-mediated penetration into the cells of the body; we can suggest the virus affects the composition of the intestinal microbiota, disrupts the interaction between organs "intestinal-lung" that may contribute to the progression of respiratory symptoms.