Chennai: Experts at AIIMS in New Delhi have said not just the lungs, COVID-19 can affect almost all organs and the initial symptoms may be totally unrelated to chest complaints.
They urged that classification of cases into mild, moderate and severe categories based just on respiratory symptoms should be relooked to include other organ involvement.
AIIMS Director DrĀ Randeep Guleria, Dr M V Padma Srivastava, head of department of Neurology, Dr. Ambuj Roy, professor of cardiology, and Dr Neeraj Nischal, associate professor in the department of medicine, during their their weekly ‘National Clinical Grand Rounds’ organised in collaboration with NITI Aayog discussed various possible extra-pulmonary complications of Covid-19.
Guleria said eight months into COVID-19, a lot has been learnt and accordingly strategies are being changed from time to time.Ā From what we thought of as a viral pneumonia has a lot of other manifestations which are beyondthe lungs, he said.
“As we have known more and more about COVID-19, we have realised it causes many extra pulmonary manifestations. This is basically of the fact that this virus enters into cell throughACE2 receptors which although are present abundantly in upper airways and lungs, they are also present in many organs and thus other organs are also affected. We have seen many patients who presented with features which are not been predominantly pulmonary but extra pulmonary manifestations,” Dr Guleria added.