Investigating Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Laboratory Findings Related to COVID-19 in Patients Referred to Allameh Bahloul Gonabadi Hospital, Iran

COVID-19 is a viral disease that has plagued all countries as a pandemic. The range of the disease varies from mild and asymptomatic to severe and fatal. Individuals with COVID-19 have several clinical and paraclinical symptoms. In this study, gastrointestinal symptoms and laboratory findings related to the COVID-19 virus were studied in patients referred to Allameh Bahloul Gonabadi Hospital (Gonabad, Iran).

In this descriptive/cross-sectional study, using a simple random sampling method, 235 patients with COVID-19 and gastrointestinal symptoms admitted to Allameh Bahloul Gonabadi Hospital in Gonabad from 2019 to 2021 were selected and examined in terms of gastrointestinal symptoms and laboratory findings due to COVID-19 virus. 

The mean age of the patients was 59.62±20.12 years, among which 48.1% were male and 51.9% were female. The most important gastrointestinal symptoms associated with COVID-19 were nausea (45.1%), vomiting (16.6%), anorexia (14.5%), abdominal pain (14.0%), and diarrhea (8.9%) respectively. Increase in lactate dehydrogenase (96.6%), aspartate transaminase (75.7%), prothrombin time (46.8%), international normalized ratio (42.8%), and decrease in white blood count (25.7%), platelet count (23%), and lymphocytes (68.5%) were the most important laboratory findings of COVID-19 positive patients. Lung involvement (94.7%), weakness and lethargy (87.7%), body aches (83.8%), and shortness of breath (76.6%) were the most common complaints of patients with COVID-19 and 83.8% of patients were C-reactive protein.

Gastrointestinal signs and symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and anorexia were common complaints in patients with COVID-19. Some chemical biomarkers, including white blood cell counts, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, partial thromboplastin time, international normalized ratio, alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase, and serum ferritin were altered in patients with COVID-19. An increase or decrease in each of the blood cells, inflammatory factors, and enzymes indicates the involvement and complication of a specific organ or tissue in the body. Lung involvement is the most obvious, which can be seen with a computerized tomography scan.