Prevelance and Outcome of Liver Function Abnormalities among Egyptian Patients with COVID-19

Abstract

Background In December 2019, a novel corona virus was identified as the pathogen to cause pneumonia in Wuhan, China, which was temporarily named as 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization, SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted from person to person through respiratory droplets and close contact, The main manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection include fever, dry cough, weakness, and breathing difficulty. Abnormality in liver function tests has been reported; almost one-half of patients experience different degrees of liver test abnormalities, According to a recent study using single-cell RNA sequencing, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 was highly expressed not only in type II alveolar epithelial cells, but also in bile duct cells. Importantly, recent studies confirmed that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor is the cell entry receptor of SARS-CoV-2 Objectives To measure the prevelance of liver function abnormalities among Egyptian patients with COVID -19 and To measure relation between liver function abnormalities and outcome among Egyptian patients with COVID -19. Patients and Methods The present study was conducted on 299 patients with covid -19, patients attended to Ain Shams Isolation Hospitals, (retrospective cohort study). Total number of cases during the study period was 299 patients. patients diagnosed with acute hepatitis were excluded from the study, Eventually, 299 patients were enrolled in the study fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Results The mean age of our patients is 59.4 years with Male predominance (159 males and 104 females). AST baseline was (55.50%) normal and (5.70%) more than 3 fold, AST after 1 week was (52.5%) normal and (6%) More than 3 fold, AST after 10 days was (54.2%) normal and (6%) More than 3 fold., ALT baseline was (71.2%) normal and (3%) more than 3 fold, ALT after 1 week was (71.9%) normal and (3.3%) More than 3 fold, ALT after 10 days was (74.6%) normal and (3.3%) More than 3 fold. Conclusion Elevated liver function is very common in patients with COVID-19 infection and a significant difference was found between liver function abnormalities and outcome .