Incidence of Transaminitis and its Association with Clinical Outcomes among Admitted Patients with COVID-19 in a Tertiary Hospital in Cavite: A Single Center Retrospective Analytical Study

Garcia JIL, Conde JA, Santi EGR

Background: Hyperplasia of bile duct epithelial cells was observed in patients with COVID-19, and there is upregulation in the expression of ACE-2 in hepatic cells related to the viral infection of neoplastic hepatocytes. Evidence about risk factors and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 associated viral transaminitis are limited. Thus, the present study was proposed to investigate this information.

Objectives: To determine the incidence of transaminitis and its association with clinical outcomes among admitted patients with COVID-19

Methodology: The study included all patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and had liver enzymes tests from January 2020 to January 2021. A minimum sample size of 246 was determined using a 95% confidence level, 20% incidence rate of transaminitis, & +/- 5% error. Data analysis was done using Pearson Chi-square for categorical data. A p-value of < 0.05 was set as the accepted significant value.

Results: A total of 260 participants were included in the study. Almost 60% of the patients (n=155) had hypertension as well as Diabetes Mellitus (n=78; 30%) and obesity (n=44, 16.9%). Participants who had Severe or Critical COVID-19 infection had transaminitis or elevated ALT >55 IU/L. There was a strong association between ALT and COVID-19 severity and was statistically significant with p<0.05. Those with Severe and Moderate COVID-10 infection were more likely to have elevated AST >48 IU/L. Like ALT, there was a strong association between AST and COVID-19 severity and was statistically significant with p<0.001. There was a strong association between clinical outcomes and COVID-19 severity and was statistically significant (p<0.001).

Conclusion: Transaminitis was noted in 123 patients (47.3%) with elevated ALT & 150 patients (58%) with elevated AST. Transaminitis was associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with severe or critical COVID-19 infection (p<0.001).

Keywords: Transaminitis, COVID-19

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam turpis eros, lacinia eget elementum commodo, laoreet a nisi. Mauris porttitor lectus sed dolor lacinia viverra. Donec lobortis posuere purus, vitae volutpat orci fringilla vitae. Quisque a quam non nunc convallis cursus.

All the manuscripts must be submitted on line thru JRRE Secretariat (jrre2016@yahoo.com.ph). There are no article processing charges for submission, editing, review and publication.

View Instructions