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Case Reports
. 2020 Jun;20(4):665-667.
doi: 10.1016/j.pan.2020.04.021. Epub 2020 May 5.

Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) associated with severe acute pancreatitis: Case report on three family members

Amer Hadi  1 , Mikkel Werge  2 , Klaus Tjelle Kristiansen  3 , Ulf Gøttrup Pedersen  3 , John Gásdal Karstensen  4 , Srdan Novovic  5 , Lise Lotte Gluud  4
Affiliations
Case Reports

Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) associated with severe acute pancreatitis: Case report on three family members

Amer Hadi et al. Pancreatology. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Background/objectives: Abdominal pain is one of the known symptoms associated with coronavirus disease 2019. Little is known about the development of acute pancreatitis as a complication of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. This case report describes the presentation of acute pancreatitis in two of three family members with severe COVID-19 infection.

Methods: Data were collected from three family members admitted with COVID-19 to the intensive care unit in March 2020. This study was reviewed and approved by the local data and ethics committee (31-1521-253).

Results: Two of the three family members were diagnosed with acute pancreatitis associated with SARS-CoV-2. Other causes of acute pancreatitis were excluded for both patients (including alcohol, biliary obstruction/gall stones, drugs, trauma, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercalcemia, and hypotension).

Conclusions: These cases highlight acute pancreatitis as a complication associated with COVID-19 and underlines the importance of measuring pancreas-specific plasma amylase in patients with COVID-19 and abdominal pain.

Keywords: Acute pancreatitis; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute pancreatitis; Viral pancreatitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest None reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Diagnostic imaging of Case 1. The top panel: chest x-ray at day 1 of admission (left) and at day 17 (right). Lower panel: ultrasound image of a voluminous pancreas and no signs of gallstones in the gallbladder and bile ducts.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Evolution of plasma amylase, C-reactive protein (CRP) and white blood cell count (WBC) during admission. ∗In Case 1, pancreas-specific plasma was measured until day 12. Afterwards, only total amylase was measured due to patient transfer and thus not plotted.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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