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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 14|pp 13895—13904

COVID-19 induced liver function abnormality associates with age

Shasha Li1, Jinsong Li1, Zhenhua Zhang2, Lin Tan1, Tuo Shao3, Ming Li1, Xiuyong Li4, Jacinta A. Holmes5, Wenyu Lin3, Mingfeng Han6
  • 1Department of Hepatology, The Second People’s Hospital of Fuyang, Fuyang 236015, Anhui Province, P.R. China
  • 2Department of Hepatology, The Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 236015, Anhui Province, P.R. China
  • 3Liver Center and Gastrointestinal Division, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
  • 4Blood Purification Center, The Second People’s Hospital of Fuyang, Fuyang 236015, Anhui Province, P.R. China
  • 5Department of Gastroenterology, St Vincent’s Hospital, University of Melbourne, Fitzroy 3065, VIC, Australia
  • 6Department of Respiratory, The Second People’s Hospital of Fuyang, Fuyang 236015, Anhui Province, P.R. China
* Co-first authors
Received: May 12, 2020Accepted: July 6, 2020Published: July 28, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103720

Copyright: © 2020 Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease that may cause fever, dry cough, fatigue and shortness of breath. The impact of COVID-19 on liver function is not well described.

Results: We found that the overall frequency of LFT abnormality was 17.6%. Frequency of LFT abnormality was significantly greater in patients with severe/critical (SC) COVID-19 compared to those with mild/moderate (MM) COVID-19 (32.4% vs 11.6%, p=0.011). Among patients with LFT abnormality, the median age was significantly higher in the SC group compared to the MM group (52 vs 39 years, p=0.021).

Conclusion: COVID-19 is frequently associated with mild liver function abnormality, particularly in individuals with severe/critical COVID-19 who were older. Liver function should be monitored carefully during infection, with judicious use of hepatotoxic agents where possible and avoidance of prolonged hypotension to minimize liver injury in older patients.

Methods: The No. 2 People’s Hospital of Fuyang City in China has admitted a total of 159 patients with confirmed COVID-19 since the outbreak from January 2020 to March 2020. We analyzed the incidence of liver function test (LFT) abnormality in these patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection.