Gastrointestinal tract diseases as a risk factor for SARSCoV2 rectal shedding? An Italian report on 10 COVID-19 patients

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 354 was defined by rhino-oropharyngeal swab positivity for SARSCoV-2 RNA by reverse polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). A rectal swab was collected from each subject on the same day the SARS-CoV-2 infection was diagnosed, performing an RT-PCR on these samples. Ten patients were enrolled (7 males, 3 females; average age: 65 years). Six subjects had pneumonia, 1 was asymptomatic, and the others had mild to moderate symptoms. None was hospitalized in intensive care unit. Seven out of the 10 patients showed comorbidities: 3 were suffering from cardiovascular diseases, 1 from anxiety-depressive syndrome, 1 from cognitive decline and 2 from intestinal diseases. Two out of 10 patients (20%) showed a positive rectal swab for SARS-CoV-2. They were 75 and 67 years, respectively. Both were males, hypertensive and smokers, with the younger one having a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Interestingly, both patients had previously been hospitalized for their digestive pathologies (gallstone pancreatitis and colon adenocarcinoma, respectively) and then transferred to the Infectious Diseases Unit due to COVID-19 diagnosis. Here, they were treated with hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir, azithromycin and low-weight heparin for 14 days. All 10 patients achieved clinical healing and virological clearance according to 2 consecutive negative PCR tests on rhino-oropharyngeal swabs. Informed consent for the study was obtained from the patients. The study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki. pISSN 1598-9100 • eISSN 2288-1956 https://doi.org/10.5217/ir.2020.00084 Intest Res 2021;19(3):354-356

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