Is COVID-19 Infection a Multiorganic Disease? Focus on Extrapulmonary Involvement of SARS-CoV-2

J Clin Med. 2024 Feb 28;13(5):1397. doi: 10.3390/jcm13051397.

Abstract

First described in December 2019 in Wuhan (China), COVID-19 disease rapidly spread worldwide, constituting the biggest pandemic in the last 100 years. Even if SARS-CoV-2, the agent responsible for COVID-19, is mainly associated with pulmonary injury, evidence is growing that this virus can affect many organs, including the heart and vascular endothelial cells, and cause haemostasis, CNS, and kidney and gastrointestinal tract abnormalities that can impact in the disease course and prognosis. In fact, COVID-19 may affect almost all the organs. Hence, SARS-CoV-2 is essentially a systemic infection that can present a large number of clinical manifestations, and it is variable in distribution and severity, which means it is potentially life-threatening. The goal of this comprehensive review paper in the series is to give an overview of non-pulmonary involvement in COVID-19, with a special focus on underlying pathophysiological mechanisms and clinical presentation.

Keywords: COVID-19 infection; SARS-CoV-2; multiorganic.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.