Severe acute respiratory syndrome and its lesions in digestive system

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is an infectious atypical pneumonia that has recently been recognized in the patients in 32 countries and regions. This brief review summarizes some of the initial etiologic findings, pathological description, and its lesions of digestive system caused by SARS virus. It is an attempt to draw gastroenterologists and hepatologists' attention to this fatal illness, especially when it manifests itself initially as digestive symptoms.