Prevalence of Abnormal Liver Function Tests in COVID-19 Patients at a Tertiary Care Centre.

Background And Aim: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 2019) outbreak caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is observed to cause liver dysfunction. We aimed to observe abnormal liver function tests (LFTs) in COVID-19 patients admitted in our hospital.

Methods: It was a cross- sectional study involving 105 COVID-19 patients who were admitted in our Hospital from 03-04-2020 to 02-05-2020. The COVID-19 positivity was defined on basis of real-time PCR. Thorough clinical examination and laboratory investigations including Complete Blood Count, Renal function Tests, Liver Function Tests, Chest X-ray, ECG, etc. were done.

Results: The total number of male and female patients were 64 and 41. Out of total 105 patients, 62 i.e. 59.04% had abnormal LFTs at time of admission. Out of these 62 patients, 44(70.9%) were Male and 18(29.03%) were female. Only 5(4.76%) patients had abnormal LFTs on repeat testing. Median Age of patients was 33years. Average stay of patients with Abnormal LFTs was 15 days (10-16 days) as compared to 10 days (7-11days) for patients with normal LFTs.

Conclusion: The prevalence of Abnormal Liver function tests in patients of COVID-19 is 59.04%. Abnormal liver functions were more in males. The average stay in hospital for COVID-19 patients with abnormal LFTs was longer than those with normal LFTs.