Diarrhea due to SARS-CoV-2-Related Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

Harish K Patel; Jasbir Makker; Ahemd Alemam; Sridhar Chilimuri

doi:10.1155/2021/9920981

Diarrhea due to SARS-CoV-2-Related Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

Case Rep Gastrointest Med. 2021 May 21:2021:9920981. doi: 10.1155/2021/9920981. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Harish K Patel^{1

2}, Jasbir Makker^{1

2}, Ahemd Alemam¹, Sridhar Chilimuri^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Gastroenterology, BronxCare Hospital Center a Clinical Affiliate of Mt Sinai Health Systems and Academic Affiliate of Icahn School of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10457, USA.
² Department of Medicine, BronxCare Hospital Center a Clinical Affiliate of Mt Sinai Health Systems and Academic Affiliate of Icahn School of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10457, USA.

Abstract

Gastrointestinal symptoms, especially diarrhea, are common with novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infection. Angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptors are heavily expressed in enterocytes and serve as entry receptors for SARS-CoV-2. ACE-2 receptors may also be responsible for pancreatic injury in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Diarrhea associated with SARS-CoV-2 is usually believed to be due to viral invasion of enterocytes. However, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency resulting from SARS-CoV-2 is another plausible mechanism leading to diarrhea in such patients. We present a case series of three SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with predominant respiratory symptoms at presentation who developed diarrhea, and further fecal analysis revealed exocrine pancreatic insufficiency as the underlying mechanism.

Publication types

Case Reports