Liver damage in patients with COVID-19 infection

Abstract

Introduction: In December 2019, a new coronavirus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), broke out in the Chinese province of Wuhan and rapidly infected hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Infected patients mostly exhibit general signs of pneumonia (fever, dyspnea, coughing and desaturation) and a presumably significant number of infected patients are asymptomatic. Purpose: Study of literature data on biomarkers of liver damage in patients with COVID-19 infection that could provide information about liver damage. Material and methods: A study of the literature from the PubMed database was performed. The keywords were used in the search process - "COVID-19", "liver damage", "biomarkers". Results: Lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) are often elevated in COVID-19 patients, indicating liver damage. Recent reports point to the fact that liver injury, by means of increased aminotransferase levels, more frequently occurred in severe COVID-19 cases compared to patients with mild symptoms. Conclusions: Further studies are needed on the impact of SARS-CoV-2 virus on liver cells.