The goal of this study was to appraise the liver function recovery of COVID-19 patients after discharge. The study included a total of 253 discharged COVID-19 patients and clinical characteristics of these patients were evaluated. A 2-month follow-up and laboratory hematology test were conducted to determine the status of patients liver function.

The outcome of the study revealed that COVID-19 patients along with liver diseases, especially fatty liver, are more probable to advance to severe condition. It has been observed that patients in severe condition and those with liver diseases have higher rates of liver injuries during hospitalization, indicative by a remarkable increase in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). The remarkable difference was seen in levels of ALT, AST/ALT, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), and A/G in contrast to the control group; and the outlier ratio of A/G, ALT, GGT and ALP of patients persisted abnormal higher within 14 days after discharge. Liver injuries of COVID-19 patients may be associated with the epidemiological characteristics, clinical indexes, basic diseases, symptoms, drug treatment during hospitalization and the complications. Indicators of liver function were associated with cardiac function, renal function, thyroid function, lipid metabolism, glucose metabolism, immune index, leukocyte, erythrocyte, hemoglobin and platelet related indexes. The outlier ratio of TP, ALB and GLB continued to be extremely low throughout the follow-up period; the outlier ratio of ALT, AST and GGT reduced below 10% from a high level at 40 days after discharged. Nonetheless, the outlier ratio of A/G, AST/ALT and ALP stayed raised during the follow-up period.

Thus, the study concluded that abnormal liver function are suggestive of worse recovery of COVID-19 patients. Variations in the levels of liver function should be stressed upon during long-term follow-up of COVID-19 patients after hospital discharge, indicative of the need of implementing proper interventions for liver function repair.

Source: An YW, Song S, Li WX, et al. Liver function recovery of COVID-19 patients after discharge, a follow-up study. Int J Med Sci. 2021;18(1):176-186.