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Review
. 2020 Oct;92(10):1818-1824.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.26036. Epub 2020 Jun 12.

Hepatic complications of COVID-19 and its treatment

Dandan Tian  1 , Qing Ye  1
Affiliations
Review

Hepatic complications of COVID-19 and its treatment

Dandan Tian et al. J Med Virol. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is highly contagious and has a variety of clinical manifestations, it can affect a number of other organs in addition to the lungs, and liver injury may occur. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 can cause liver injury through systemic inflammatory response syndrome, cytokine storms, ischemia-reperfusion injury, side effects of treatment drugs, and underlying liver disease and can attack liver cells directly via angiotensin-converting enzyme 2. Clinical studies have found that liver injury in COVID-19 patients mainly manifests as abnormal liver biochemical indicators, but there have been no reports of liver failure caused by this disease. The number of COVID-19 patients with liver injury is increasing, and the incidence of liver injury in COVID-19 patients with severe disease are higher than in patients with mild disease. Liver injury may be a risk factor, which worsens in patients with COVID-19, and hence it is necessary to pay attention to the occurrence of liver injury in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; liver injury; mechanism.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SIRS and cytokine storms in COVID‐19 with liver injury. COVID‐19, coronavirus disease 2019; IFN‐γ, interferon‐γ; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; SIRS, systemic inflammatory response syndrome; TNF‐α, tumor necrosis factor‐α
Figure 2
Figure 2
Drug hepatotoxicity in COVID‐19 patients. COVID‐19, coronavirus disease 2019; ROS, reactive oxygen species; SARS‐CoV‐2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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