Comparative Study on Clinical Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients with or without Digestive Symptoms in Razi Hospital, Ahvaz, Khuzestan

Background: Most commonly reported clinical manifestations are fever, fatigue and dry cough. Interestingly, a small percentage of patients experience GI symptoms, with the most common being anorexia, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. We aimed to conduct a comparative study on COVID-19 patients with or without gastrointestinal patients (GI). Aims: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a dire health problem, causing a massive crisis for global health. Methods: Collective data of clinical manifestations and laboratory reports of patients admitted to Razi Hospital, Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran, for two weeks were analyzed. Results: Our results showed that GI symptoms are not statistically significant criteria to be predictive or prognostic factors in COVID-19 patients, although they are probably related to the acute or non-acute phase of the disease. Moreover, non-specific GI symptoms seem to result from cytokine storm that occurred during the disease. Conclusion: Therefore, our results did not support GI tract involvement as a common route of COVID- 19 infection. Maybe future research will shed light on why and how the gastrointestinal system becomes infected by COVID-19.