COVID-19 and liver disease: mechanistic and clinical perspectives

Journal article

Background: In December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia, caused by a new type of coronavirus, named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It quickly spread worldwide, resulting in a pandemic. The clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 range from mild non-specific symptoms to severe pneumonia with organ function damage. In addition, up to 60% of patients have liver impairment or dysfunction, confirmed by several studies by the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the liver tissue.Methods: We report two cases of symptomatic liver cyst requiring fenestration after recent SARS-CoV-2 infection. Both patients had hospital admission due to documented SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recently, after the infection, they developed symptoms caused by an enlarged hepatic cyst: one had abdominal pain, and the other had jaundice. They underwent surgery after two negative swab tests for SARS-CoV-2.Results: Cystic fluid was sent for microbiological test, and real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 nucleic-acid assay of the cyst fluid was found to be negative in both cases.Discussion: Although there are no current data that can document a viral contamination of cystic fluid, there are data that document a hepatotropism of COVID-19 virus. Herein we report that after viral clearance at pharyngeal and nasal swab, there is no evidence of viral load in such potential viral reservoir

Authors: Marjot, T; Webb, GJ; Barritt, AS; Moon, AM; Stamataki, Z

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 348-364
• Publication date: 2021-03-10
• DOI: 10.1038/s41575-021-00426-4
• EISSN: 1759-5053
• ISSN: 1759-5045
• Language: English
• Keywords: Pandemic; Cirrhosis; Context (archaeology); Infectious disease (medical specialty); Disease; Immunology; Internal medicine; Transplantation; Liver disease; Medicine; Coronavirus; Liver transplantation; Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Pathology; Biology