Imaging has revealed that patients with COVID-19 can have bowel abnormalities, including ischemia, according to a retrospective study of 412 patients of a single care center.
According to the study published in the journal Radiology, 17% of patients had cross-sectional abdominal imaging, including 44 ultrasounds, 42 CT scans, and 1 MRI, with bowel abnormalities seen on 31% of CT scans (3.2% of all patients).
Abnormalities were more frequent in ICU patients than other inpatients and included thickening, ischemia, pneumatosis and portal venous gas.
Surgical correlation in four patients revealed unusual yellow discoloration of bowel in three of the patients, and bowel infarction in two patients.
Both had fibrin thrombi in submucosal arterioles, suggesting bowel ischemia in these patients might be caused by these small blood clots.
The researchers said possible explanations for the spectrum of bowel findings in patients with COVID-19 included direct viral infection, small vessel thrombosis, or nonocclusive mesenteric ischemia.
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Source: Science Daily
