Manifestations of digestive system of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 in Wuhan, China: a single-center descriptive study

Abstract

Objective To study the manifestations of digestive system of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, and to provide a reference for disease control and treatment. Methods The data of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the Sino-French Branch of Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology from January 27 to February 14, 2020 were retrospectively analyzed, which included general information, positive rate of nucleic acid test, severity of disease, incubation period, initial symptoms and manifestations of digestive system. The general information, positive rate of nucleic acid detection, and manifestations of digestive system were compared between critical patients who required non-invasive or invasive assisted ventilation (critical group) and non-critical patients without assisted ventilation (non-critical group). Continuous corrected Chi-square test and independent sample median Chi-square test were used for statistical analysis. Results Among the 305 patients, there were 146 males (47.9%) and 159 females (52.1%), and the median age was 57 years old. Nucleic acid assay of nasopharyngeal swabs or pharyngeal swabs were positive in 84.1% (228/271) patients including 46 patients (15.1%) of critical group and 259 patients (84.9%) of non-critical group. The incubation period was one to fifteen days, and the median period was six days. The initial symptoms were mainly fever (81.1%, 163/201), cough (39.3%, 79/201), fatigue (54.7%, 110/201), and loss of appetite (50.2%, 101/201). In one to ten days after the disease onset, 79.1% (159/201) of patients developed gastrointestinal symptoms including nausea (29.4%, 59/201), vomiting (15.9%, 32/201), or abdominal pain (6.0%, 12/201). 49.5% (146/295) of patients had diarrhea, with a median time of 3.3 days, (3.3±1.6) times per day, and a duration of (4.1±2.5) days. After excluding possible drug-related diarrhea, the incidence of diarrhea was still 22.2%. Only 6.9% (4/58) of patients had positive fecal leukocytes or fecal occult blood test. Alanine aminotrans ferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), or total bilirubin (TBil) increased in 39.1% (119/304) of patients on admission. Patients with ALT or AST ≥ 80 U/L only accounted for 7.9% (24/304) and 6.3% (19/304), respectively. About 2.0% (6/304) of patients also had increased TBil level, and the average level was (37.4±21.1) μmol/L. The median age of critical group was older than that of non-critical group (65 years vs. 56 years), the proportion of patients with abnormal liver function and slightly increased AST (40- 0.05). Conclusions The manifestation of digestive system of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Wuhan is significant, the proportion of patients with diarrhea and abnormal aminotransferase level is high. And on admission the proportion of patients with abnormal liver function of critical group is higher than that of non-critical group, which will provide reference for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Key words: 2019-nCoV; COVID-19; Diarrhea; Liver function; Gastrointestinal tract