Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Centre Rijeka, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia.
Medicina (Kaunas). 2021 Oct 3;57(10):1057. doi: 10.3390/medicina57101057.
The COVID-19 pandemic was and still is a global burden with more than 178,000,000 cases reported so far. Although it mainly affects respiratory organs, COVID-19 has many extrapulmonary manifestations, including, among other things, liver injury. Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain direct and indirect impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus on the liver. Studies have shown that around 15-30% of patients with COVID-19 have underlying liver disease, and 20-35% of patients with COVID-19 had altered liver enzymes at admission. One of the hypotheses is reactivation of an underlying liver disease, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Some studies have shown that NAFLD is associated with severe COVID-19 and poor outcome; nevertheless, other studies showed no significant difference between groups in comparing complications and clinical outcomes. Patients with NAFLD may suffer severe COVID-19 due to other comorbidities, especially cardiovascular diseases. The link between NAFLD and COVID-19 is not clear yet, and further studies and research are needed.
目前，COVID-19 大流行仍然是一个全球性的负担，已报告超过 178000000 例病例。虽然它主要影响呼吸道器官，但 COVID-19 有许多肺外表现，包括肝损伤等。已经提出了许多假设来解释 SARS-CoV-2 病毒对肝脏的直接和间接影响。研究表明，约 15-30%的 COVID-19 患者存在潜在的肝脏疾病，20-35%的 COVID-19 患者在入院时出现肝酶改变。其中一个假设是潜在的肝脏疾病（如非酒精性脂肪性肝病，NAFLD）的再激活。一些研究表明，NAFLD 与严重的 COVID-19 和不良预后有关；然而，其他研究在比较并发症和临床结果时发现两组之间没有显著差异。由于其他合并症，尤其是心血管疾病，NAFLD 患者可能会患严重的 COVID-19。NAFLD 和 COVID-19 之间的联系尚不清楚，需要进一步的研究和调查。
