Abdominal symptoms as an initial manifestation of COVID-19 infection: Report of two cases

Yokoo, Patricia Nunes Fonseca Eduardo Kaiser Ururahy Filho Marcelo Oranges Chate Rodrigo Caruso Szarf Gilberto Baroni Ronaldo Hueb

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic started in December 2019 in Wuhan (Hubei, China) and spread rapidly;therefore, it is essential to detect the disease at an early stage and immediately isolate the infected patients [1]. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 infection include fever, asthenia, cough and dyspnea [2]. However, some patients are asymptomatic from the respiratory symptoms, and may only present abdominal manifestations as an initial finding, what creates a diagnostic challenge.We describe two cases with diagnostic confirmations of COVID-19 who showed up at the Emergency Department with abdominal symptoms before presenting respiratory manifestations, and who had their initial suspicion based on the findings of the thoracoabdominal transition, demonstrating the importance of an adequate assessment of the lung base images.