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Review
. 2020 Jun;8(5):509-519.
doi: 10.1177/2050640620924157.

Liver injury in COVID-19: The current evidence

Saleh A Alqahtani  1   2 , Jörn M Schattenberg  3
Affiliations
Review

Liver injury in COVID-19: The current evidence

Saleh A Alqahtani et al. United European Gastroenterol J. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Patients with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) experience various degrees of liver function abnormalities. Liver injury requires extensive work-up and continuous surveillance and can be multifactorial and heterogeneous in nature. In the context of COVID-19, clinicians will have to determine whether liver injury is related to an underlying liver disease, drugs used for the treatment of COVID-19, direct effect of the virus, or a complicated disease course. Recent studies proposed several theories on potential mechanisms of liver injury in these patients. This review summarizes current evidence related to hepatobiliary complications in COVID-19, provides an overview of the available case series and critically elucidates the proposed mechanisms and provides recommendations for clinicians.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV2; cholangiocytes; cytokine storm; liver function test; liver injury; lymphopenia.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Clinical characteristics and pathophysiology of liver injury from COVID-19. ACE2: angiotensin-2 converting enzyme
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