BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhua). Researchers have found that newer patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with diarrhea showed severe pneumonia symptoms than patients without diarrhea. This emerges from a recently published research article in the journal Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Researchers at Sun Yat-sen University Sixth Affiliated Hospital and the Gastroenterology Research Institute examined the intestinal symptoms of patients with COVID-19 from several medical centers in China.
They collected and analyzed data from 232 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 and were admitted from January 19 to March 6 in 14 hospitals in the provinces of Guangdong, Hubei and Jiangxi. Two patients with pre-existing digestive diseases were excluded from the analysis.
The most common symptoms of the patients at the beginning of the illness were fever, cough and sputum. Diarrhea was observed in 49 patients, or 21 percent, according to the research article, which said that diarrhea patients were older and more likely to have comorbidities than those without diarrhea.
The researchers also discovered that more patients with diarrhea showed severe pneumonia symptoms than those without. Although there was no correlation between diarrhea and oxygen supplementation, a larger proportion of patients with diarrhea needed ventilation support and intensive care admission, the article said.
They saw no correlation between diarrhea and the use of antiviral drugs or antibiotics.
The analysis did not cover the prevalence data for asymptomatic COVID-19.
The researchers also noted that drugs such as antivirals, lopinavir, and ritonavir are known to cause diarrhea. End item
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