Zippi M, Fiorino S, Occhigrossi G, Hong W. Hypertransaminasemia in the course of infection with SARS-CoV-2: Incidence and pathogenetic hypothesis. World J Clin Cases 2020; 8(8): 1385-1390 [PMID: 32368531 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i8.1385]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Maddalena Zippi, PhD, Doctor, Medical Assistant, Unit of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, Sandro Pertini Hospital, Via dei Monti Tiburtini 385, Rome 00157, Italy. maddyzip@yahoo.it
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/
World J Clin Cases. Apr 26, 2020; 8(8): 1385-1390 Published online Apr 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i8.1385
Hypertransaminasemia in the course of infection with SARS-CoV-2: Incidence and pathogenetic hypothesis
Maddalena Zippi, Sirio Fiorino, Giuseppe Occhigrossi, Wandong Hong
Maddalena Zippi, Giuseppe Occhigrossi, Unit of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, Sandro Pertini Hospital, Rome 00157, Italy
Sirio Fiorino, Unit of Internal Medicine, Maggiore Hospital, Local Health Unit of Bologna, Bologna 40133, Italy
Wandong Hong, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Zippi M and Occhigrossi G made substantial contribution to study conception and design; Fiorino S and Hong W were involved in acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data; Zippi M and Hong W were involved in drafting the article, revising it critically for important intellectual content and gave final approval of the version to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Maddalena Zippi, PhD, Doctor, Medical Assistant, Unit of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, Sandro Pertini Hospital, Via dei Monti Tiburtini 385, Rome 00157, Italy. maddyzip@yahoo.it
Received: March 25, 2020 Peer-review started: March 25, 2020 First decision: April 7, 2020 Revised: April 8, 2020 Accepted: April 11, 2020 Article in press: April 11, 2020 Published online: April 26, 2020
Abstract
In patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the respiratory symptoms, such as fever, cough and dyspnea, are the most frequent clinical manifestations. These patients may also present with less well-defined symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and/or abdominal discomfort both at the time of diagnosis and during the clinical course. In a few cases, these symptoms may also present before the appearance of respiratory symptoms. To penetrate the body, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 uses ACE2 receptors, which are present not only in respiratory epithelium but also in gastrointestinal mucosa and liver cholangiocytes. In several cases, viral RNA is detectable in the stool of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The liver damage seems to show a multifactorial origin. About 2%-11% of patients with COVID-19 have known underlying hepatic pathologies. In 14%-53% of COVID-19 cases, there is an alteration of the indices of liver cytolysis and is more frequently observed in severe forms of COVID-19, especially during hospitalization.
Core tip: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection currently represents an emerging pandemic. More and more published papers, with constantly updated data, highlight a concomitant hepatic impairment, particularly, an hypertransaminasemia. In this mini-review, we will try to analyze the incidence and pathogenetic hypothesis of this phenomenon using the currently available data.
