Elnaggar M, Abomhya A, Elkhattib I, Dawoud N, Doshi R. COVID-19 and liver diseases, what we know so far. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(13): 3969-3980 [PMID: 35665122 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i13.3969]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Mohamed Elnaggar, MD, Staff Physician, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Nevada Reno school of Medicine, 1155 Mill Street, W-11, Reno, NV 89052, United States. mohamed.elnaggar.md@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
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/
World J Clin Cases. May 6, 2022; 10(13): 3969-3980 Published online May 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i13.3969
COVID-19 and liver diseases, what we know so far
Mohamed Elnaggar, Ahmed Abomhya, Ismail Elkhattib, Nabila Dawoud, Rajkumar Doshi
Mohamed Elnaggar, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Nevada Reno School of Medicine, Reno, NV 89052, United States
Ahmed Abomhya, Department of Internal Medicine, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Brooklyn, NY 11200, United States
Ismail Elkhattib, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Connecticut, Farmington, CT 06030, United States
Nabila Dawoud, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40508, United States
Rajkumar Doshi, Department of Cardiology, St Joseph's University Medical Center, Paterson, NJ 07503, United States
Author contributions: Elnaggar M, Abomhya A, Elkhattib I, Dawoud N and Doshi R contributed to the conceptualization, software, wrote original draft, review and editing; Doshi R contributed to the supervision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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: Mohamed Elnaggar, MD, Staff Physician, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Nevada Reno school of Medicine, 1155 Mill Street, W-11, Reno, NV 89052, United States. mohamed.elnaggar.md@gmail.com
Received: July 7, 2021 Peer-review started: July 7, 2021 First decision: September 28, 2021 Revised: October 15, 2021 Accepted: March 25, 2022 Article in press: March 25, 2022 Published online: May 6, 2022 Processing time: 297 Days and 3.9 Hours
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia outbreak started in December 2019. On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) constitutes a pandemic, and as of May 2021, SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 167.3 million patients, including 3.4 million deaths, reported to WHO. In this review, we will focus on the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the liver. We will discuss how chronic liver diseases affect the COVID-19 disease course and outcomes. We will also discuss the SARS-CoV-2 effects on the liver, mechanisms of acute liver injury, and potential management plans.
Core Tip: On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was a pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 is notorious for causing gastrointestinal and liver injuries. Liver injury mechanisms include SARS-CoV-2-induced hepatic steatosis, reactivation of pre-existing liver disease, mitochondrial dysfunction, cardiomyopathy with hepatic congestion, immune-mediated damage, hypoxic hepatitis, direct cytotoxicity, drug-induced liver injury, ischemic hepatitis, microthrombotic disease, and extrahepatic release of transaminases. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has various effects on pre-existing liver conditions that range from care disruptions, exacerbation of liver condition, and higher mortality rates. It is necessary to know the mechanisms of liver injury in COVID-19 disease, epidemiology, clinical presentations, diagnosis, and effects on pre-existing liver conditions.
