Abdominal gastrointestinal imaging findings on computed tomography in patients with COVID-19 and correlation with clinical outcomes

Pulmonary imaging finding of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been widely described, but until now few studies have been published about abdominal radiological presentation. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of abdominal imaging findings in patients with COVID-19 in a multicenter study and correlate them with worse clinical outcomes.

This retrospective study included adult COVID-positive patients with abdominal CT performed from 4/1/2020 to 5/1/2020 from two institutions. Demographic, laboratory and clinical data were recorded, including clinical outcomes.

Of 81 COVID-positive patients, the average age was 61 years, 42 (52%) women and 45 (55%) had positive abdominopelvic findings. The most common abdominal imaging features were intestinal imaging findings (20/81, 24%), including colorectal (4/81, 5%) and small bowel thickening (10/81, 12%), intestinal distension (15/81, 18%), pneumatosis (1/81, 1%) and intestinal perforation (1/81, 1%). On multivariate analysis, intestinal imaging findings were associated with higher risk of worse outcome (death or invasive mechanical ventilation) (RR = 2.6, p = 0.04) and higher risk of invasive mechanical ventilation alone (RR = 6.2, p = 0.05).

Intestinal abnormalities were common findings in COVID-19 patients who underwent abdominal CT and were significantly correlated to worse outcomes in the clinical follow-up.