Taneva G, Dimitrov D, Velikova T. Liver dysfunction as a cytokine storm manifestation and prognostic factor for severe COVID-19. World J Hepatol 2021; 13(12): 2005-2012 [PMID: 35070004 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v13.i12.2005]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Tsvetelina Velikova, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Lozenetz, Kozyak 1 Str., Sofia 1407, Bulgaria. tsvelikova@medfac.mu-sofia.bg
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Gergana Taneva, Dimitar Dimitrov, Department of Gastroenterology, Sveta Sofia Hospital, Sofia 1618, Bulgaria
Tsvetelina Velikova, Department of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Lozenetz, Sofia 1407, Bulgaria
Tsvetelina Velikova, Medical Faculty, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia 1407, Bulgaria
Author contributions: Taneva G, Dimitrov D, and Velikova T wrote different parts of the paper; and all authors revised and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None disclosed.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tsvetelina Velikova, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Lozenetz, Kozyak 1 Str., Sofia 1407, Bulgaria. tsvelikova@medfac.mu-sofia.bg
Received: April 22, 2021 Peer-review started: April 22, 2021 First decision: June 15, 2021 Revised: July 2, 2021 Accepted: November 18, 2021 Article in press: November 18, 2021 Published online: December 27, 2021
Core Tip
Core Tip: Looking at the liver tests in patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), C-reactive protein (CRP) showed a strong correlation with the aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels. This was observed in both intensive care units (ICU) and non-ICU patients. However, CRP levels were higher in non-ICU patients with liver damage, whereas alanine aminotransferase (ALT) was higher in ICU COVID-19 patients. Thus, like interleukin-6 (IL-6), ferritin, and CRP correlated directly with AST and ALT levels in non-ICU patients, there is a direct correlation of IL-6 and acute phase proteins with AST in severe COVID-19 cases. These observations confirm the critical impact of systemic inflammation and specifically elevated IL-6 during severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 cytokine storm on liver injury.
