A0258 - COVID-19 Is Associated with Increased Risks for Development of Esophagogastrointestinal Motility Disorders

Yuhan Fu, DO¹, Gengqing Song, MD¹, Yan Sun, MD^2
1MetroHealth Medical Center/Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH; ²Summa Health Medical Group, Stow, OH

Introduction: Patients with COVID-19 infection can present with various gastrointestinal symptoms. There is growing evidence that COVID-19 can affect smooth muscle, peripheral and central nervous system, which may lead to brain-gut dysfunction, a major pathophysiologic mechanism for esophagogastrointestinal motility disorders (EGMD). It is unclear if COVID-19 will increase the risk for patients to develop EGMD. The goal of the study was to determine the incidence of common EGMD in patients after testing positive for COVID-19, and to compare the incidence of EGMD in non-COVID patients.

Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was performed using IBM Explorys, which contained deidentified healthcare information from over 64 million patients across the US. COVID-19 cohort is consisted of patients with a positive COVID test or a diagnosis of coronavirus infection from 2020-2022. The control group consists of patients who did not have a positive COVID test or documented coronavirus infection from 2020-2022. We collected diagnosis of gastroparesis (GP), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), esophageal dysmotility, functional dyspepsia (FD) and common gastrointestinal symptoms that happen after COVID-19 was diagnosed; Same information was collected in the non-COVID group. Incidence rate per 100000 person-year was calculated. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence interval were used to compare the cohorts.

Results: There was a total of 287,950 patients in the COVID-19 positive cohort and 18,346,510 patients in the COVID negative cohort (Table 1). The incidence of EGMD was higher in COVID-19 positive group compared with the COVID negative group, including GP (OR 1.90-2.17), IBS (OR 1.47-1.58), esophageal dysmotility (OR 1.38-1.68) and FD (OR 1.09-1.42). COVID positive cohort had a higher incidence of new onset gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea (OR 1.75-1.80), vomiting (OR 1.31-1.35), early satiety (OR 1.75-2.10), epigastric pain (OR 1.42-1.50), heartburn (OR 1.79-1.97), diarrhea (OR 1.94-2.00), constipation (OR 1.44-1.49) and bloating (OR 5.34-6.77).

Discussion: COVID-19 positive patients are associated with a higher incidence of newly diagnosed EGMD and various gastrointestinal symptoms compared to the non-COVID patients. Further research is warranted to determine the pathophysiological connection between COVID and the development of EGMD.



Disclosures:


Yuhan Fu, DO¹, Gengqing Song, MD¹, Yan Sun, MD². A0258 - COVID-19 Is Associated with Increased Risks for Development of Esophagogastrointestinal Motility Disorders, ACG 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Charlotte, NC: American College of Gastroenterology.