The most common gastrointestinal alterations in patients with post-COVID syndrome

Introduction: Post-COVID syndrome may affect the gastrointestinal tract. However, risk factors of post-COVID syndrome are still unknown. Objective: We aimed to identify the most common gastrointestinal symptoms, abnormal laboratory findings and risk factors relevant to post-COVID syndrome.Method: In this retrospective study, we included 79 patients admitted to Semmelweis University Department of Sur-gery, Transplantation and Gastroenterology between October 2020 and September 2022. We investigated clinical data, laboratory findings and determined the major risk factors.Results: Most of the patients were women (46/79), their mean age was 47.6 years and patients were overweight (BMI: 26.3 kg/m2). The most common comorbidities were cardiovascular diseases (21/79), hypertension (20/79), diabetes (11/79) and malignant diseases (9/79). Typical indications for gastroscopy were dyspepsia (16/79) and epigastric pain (10/79). The most common indications for colonoscopy were diarrhea (29/79) and weight loss (28/79). Among abnormal laboratory findings, liver enzymes levels (GOT: 83.5 U/L, GPT: 85 U/L, GGT: 70 U/L) and ferritin (351.5 ng/mL) were higher in post-COVID patients. Typical conditions diagnosed by gastros-copy, colonoscopy and abdominal ultrasound were gastroesophageal reflux disease (11/26), irritable bowel syn-drome (2/19) and diffuse hepatic lesions, respectively. The number of unvaccinated patients was higher compared to those receiving any COVID-19 vaccines (58% vs. 29%). Of the vaccinated patients, 12 patients received mRNA vaccines (10 Pfizer-BioNTech, 2 Moderna) and 6 patients received viral vector vaccines (2 AstraZeneca, 4 Sput-nik V).Conclusion: We identified female gender, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, hypertension and diabetes as major risk factors of post-COVID syndrome. Vaccinated status may prevent post-COVID gastrointestinal symptoms.