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Abstract
Introduction SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is a novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and since become a global pandemic. As such, its clinical behaviour is a subject of much interest. Initial reports suggested a significant proportion of patients have abnormal liver blood tests. Gwent has experienced one of the highest incidences of COVID-19 infection in the UK, which itself has among the highest COVID-19 impacts worldwide.
Method We set out to report the incidence, clinical pattern and severity of liver blood test abnormalities in hospitalised patients with confirmed COVID-19 in our institution over a 3-week period. Data on clinical outcomes such as admission to intensive therapy unit (ITU), hospital discharge and mortality were recorded.
Results 318 hospitalised COVID-19 positive had liver blood tests available for analysis. Ninety-seven patients (31%) had one or more abnormal liver blood tests and were abnormal admission in 64%. Liver tests were predominantly cholestatic (72%) in contrast to other studies to date. Male gender and abnormal liver blood tests were associated with ITU admission.
Conclusions Almost one-third of admissions with COVID-19 have abnormal LBTs which are typically mild and are associated with male gender. Importantly, we have identified that cholestatic patterns dominate but were not clearly associated with ITU admission or death.
- hepatitis
- cholestasis
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Footnotes
Twitter @GwentLiverUnit, @SyedGerdezi
Contributors AY developed the idea for the project, collected data and wrote the manuscript. DRM collected data and wrote, reviewed and helped edit the manuscript. SAAG collected data and assisted with writing the manuscript. HNH assisted with statistical analysis and helped write and edit the manuscript. MIY collected data and helped edit the manuscript. FY collected data, assisted in writing and editing the manuscript. MAC collected data and assisted in writing and editing the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval Approval to undertake this review was obtained from the Health Boards Research and Development Department.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as online supplementary information. All data were held on Health Board computers on secure drives and each file was password protected. Data were anonymised.