Association between gastrointestinal symptoms and disease severity in patients with COVID-19 in Tehran City, Iran

INTRODUCTION: It is important to identify the relationship between COVID-19 and gastrointestinal symptoms for health organizations in different communities. AIM: To assess the relationship between gastrointestinal symptoms and COVID-19. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study that was conducted on 381 patients those where admitted to Imam Hossein Hospital with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 on nasopharyngeal polymerase chain reaction testing for SARS-CoV-2 from first March to end of June in Tehran city; 2020. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 22 and level of significant was consider less than 0.05. RESULTS: Out of all the patients with COVID-19, 164 (43%) had gastrointestinal symptoms. The most symptoms of them were nausea (19.2%), vomiting (17.2%), abdominal pain (15.7%), diarrhoea (12.6%), haematomas (1%), melena (1.6%), rectal bleeding (1.6%), and constipation (1.8%), respectively. The mean D-dimer1 value was significantly different between the 2 groups with gastrointestinal symptoms and no gastrointestinal symptoms. In other words, there is a strong relationship between the variable D-dimer1, which is one of the important symptoms showing the severity of COVID-19 disease, and gastrointestinal symptoms (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our finding shows a statistical relationship between the level of D-dimer and gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with COVID-19. The mortality rate was higher in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms, which is an important outcome for gastroenterologists.