liver enzymes and inpatient deaths in covid-19 hospitalized patients

Background: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sarscov2) [covid19] quickly turned into a pandemic. gastrointestinal involvement, especially liver diseases, is one of the main complications of covid19 patients. [objectives]the current study aimed to evaluate the high incidence of liver involvement in covid19 hospitalized patients and its association with mortality. methods: a total of 560 hospitalized patients with a confirmed diagnosis of covid19 were included. death was considered as the outcome. in addition to liver enzymes, demographic, clinical, and other laboratory data were also collected. alanine aminotransferase (alt) and aspartate aminotransferase (ast) levels ≥ 40 were considered as abnormal. to investigate the association between abnormal levels of liver enzymes and death, multiple regression logistic was used. results: according to the findings, 29.1% (95% ci = 25.3% -32.9%) of patients had high levels (≥ 40 iu) of alt, and 45.1% (95% ci = 40.9%-49.3%) had high levels of ast (≥ 40 iu). the frequency (based on %) of high levels of ast (≥ 40 u/liter) was significantly higher in patients who died [67.3% (95% ci = 54.5%-80.1%] of covid19 than those who survived [44.9% (95% ci = 39.7%-50.0%)] (p-value < 0.001). no significant difference was detected in alt between expired [29.1% (95% ci = 16.7%-41.5%)] and survived patients [30.7% (95% ci = 25.9%-35.5%] (p-value = 0.791). ast was found to have an independent association with death in multiple logistic regression (wald = 4.429, or (95% ci) = 1.014 (1.008 -1.020), p-value = 0.035). conclusions: liver involvement is a common finding in covid19 hospitalized patients. higher levels of ast were significantly associated with an increased mortality rate in covid-19 patients.