Gastrointestinal tract symptoms in coronavirus disease 2019: Analysis of clinical symptoms in adult patients
Objective: To investigate the clinical presentation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) particularly the incidence of gastrointestinal tract symptoms. Design: We enrolled adult COVID 19 patients from a mobile cabin hospital in Wuhan with a definitive diagnosis by SARS CoV 2 nucleic acid testing. Face to face interviews were conducted in which the patient selected COVID 19 related symptoms and report the time of onset and duration of symptoms. Results: A total of 212 adults were enrolled in this study, of which 127 (59.9% were females, mean age was 48.50 (range: 17 79) years, and mean disease course was 26.78 (3 60) days. Fever and cough were the most common and earliest clinical symptoms of COVID 19. Diarrhoea occurred in 43.8% (93/212) of patients, of which 86.0% (80/93) had mushy stools. Nausea and vomiting were also common (20.7% Diarrhoea lasted for 4.00(2.00 8.85) days and mostly occurred 5.00(0.25 11.00) days after the emergence of the first symptoms. Multiple logistic regression analysis found that diarrhoea was significantly correlated with fatigue [OR2.900,95%CI (1.629 5.164) p<0.0001] Conclusions: Gastrointestinal tract symptoms are common in COVID 19 and most occur during the middle stage of the disease and lasts for a short period of time. Clinicians need to pay greater attention to gastrointestinal tract symptoms of COVID 19.
medRxiv