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. 2022 Oct;11(3):524-531.
doi: 10.52547/rbmb.11.3.524.

Hepatocellular Damage and Severity of COVID-19 Infection in Iraqi Patients: A Biochemical Study

Zainab Nazar Hasan Anber  1 , Basil Oead Mohammed Saleh  2 , Mohammed Waheab Al-Obidy  3
Affiliations

Hepatocellular Damage and Severity of COVID-19 Infection in Iraqi Patients: A Biochemical Study

Zainab Nazar Hasan Anber et al. Rep Biochem Mol Biol. 2022 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Infection with COVID-19 can cause hepatic damages. Here, we aimed to examine the effect of COVID-19 infection on the serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), albumin, and procalcitonin (PCT) concentrations as markers to evaluate the liver function.

Methods: In this study, 56 patients infected with COVID- 19 and 28 healthy controls was recruited in Private Nursing Home Hospital of the Medical City, Baghdad. Patients were subdivided according to disease severity into severe and non-severe groups.

Results: The results showed that the mean±SD value of serum AST activity and serum PCT concentrations were elevated significantly in severe group in comparison to healthy control, (p< 0.01, p< 0.001) respectively. Also, the mean ±SD value of serum ALT activity was higher in severe group compared to the healthy subjects and non-severe ones, significantly (p< 0.0001, p< 0.003) respectively. While the mean value of serum albumin concentration of severe patients and non-severe group were significantly decreased compared to healthy subjects. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) revealed that ROC value of albumin (0.992) differentiates between non-severe infected patients and healthy subjects, while the ROC value of serum ALT activity (0.735) differentiates between severe COVID-19 patients and non- severe ones.

Conclusion: Changes of liver function parameters in COVID-19 patients were mild to moderate and measurement of serum ALT activity is the best biomarker in differentiation between non-severe patients and severe ones and albumin concentration is excellent in discrimination between patients and controls.

Keywords: Albumin; Procalcitonin; Serum aminotransferase enzymes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The entire work had permitted by the Ethical Committees of local authorities. All participants provided an inscribed informed consent, and the research had conducted in line with the ethical morals identified in the 1975 treaty of Helsinki. The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest related to the present research.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
ROC analysis for Albumin as discriminating between non-severe COVID-19 and healthy controls. Albumin had ROC and AUC value (0.992) in differentiation of non-severe COVID -19 patients from healthy subjects at cutoff value (≤3.40 g/dl) with sensitivity and specificity (SE=85.71& SP=96.43).
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