Kant R, Chandra L, Antony MA, Verma V. Case of COVID-19 presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms. World J Virol 2020; 9(1): 1-4 [PMID: 32547932 DOI: 10.5501/wjv.v9.i1.1]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ravi Kant, MD, Affiliate Associate Professor, Doctor, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, Medical University of South Carolina/AnMed Campus, 2000 E. Greenville Street, Suite # 3100, Anderson, SC 29621, United States. kant.ravi.md@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Infectious Diseases
Article-Type of This Article
Letter To The Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Virol. May 25, 2020; 9(1): 1-4 Published online May 25, 2020. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v9.i1.1
Case of COVID-19 presenting with gastrointestinal symptoms
Ravi Kant, Lakshya Chandra, Mc Anto Antony, Vipin Verma
Ravi Kant, Mc Anto Antony, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Medical University of South Carolina/AnMed Campus, Anderson, SC 29621, United States
Lakshya Chandra, Department of Medicine, Bon Secours Saint Francis Health System, Greenville, South Carolina, SC 29601, United States
Vipin Verma, Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina/AnMed Campus, Anderson, SC 29621, United States
Author contributions: Kant R and Verma V designed the outline; Kant R, Chandra L and Verma V performed the majority of writing; Kant R, Chandra L, Antony MA and Verma V wrote and edited the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have nothing to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ravi Kant, MD, Affiliate Associate Professor, Doctor, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, Medical University of South Carolina/AnMed Campus, 2000 E. Greenville Street, Suite # 3100, Anderson, SC 29621, United States. kant.ravi.md@gmail.com
Received: April 9, 2020 Peer-review started: April 9, 2020 First decision: April 18, 2020 Revised: April 19, 2020 Accepted: May 12, 2020 Article in press: May 12, 2020 Published online: May 25, 2020
Abstract
Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) predominantly present with the pulmonary symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath. We present a case of an 83 years old patient with COVID-19 who presented with only gastrointestinal symptoms without respiratory complaints. Our case raises the concern regarding our current lack of understanding of extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID-19. Given genetic homology between 2019 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) 2 and SARS-CoV, our case underscores the urgent need for further studies to understand the role of the gastrointestinal system in 2019 SARS-CoV-2 transmission and COVID-19 pathogenesis.
Core tip: We present a case of an 83 years old patient with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who presented with only gastrointestinal symptoms without respiratory complaints. Our case raises the concern regarding our current lack of understanding of extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID-19 and underscores the urgent need for further studies to understand the role of the gastrointestinal system in 2019 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission and COVID-19 pathogenesis.
