A study on c-reactive protein and liver function tests in laboratory rt-pcr positive covid-19 patients in a tertiary care centre – a retrospective study

ABSTRACT

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the greatest challenges to the global healthcare system. Although the respiratory system is the main target of SARS-CoV-2 infection;other organs, exposure to the viral infection might also be a concern for CVID-19 affected patients especially the cardiovascular system and liver. Objective: To know the status of C-reactive protein (CRP)and Liver Function Tests (LFT) in Covid-19 positive patients before initiating any treatment in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: Age and sex-matched 40 cases were taken for the study who were hospitalized and COVID-19 infection had been confirmed by real-time RT PCR for COVID-19. Patients with a previous history of liver illness, renal disorders, chronic inflammatory conditions, malignancy and autoimmune disorders were excluded from the study. Results: Almost all the liver enzymes were higher than the normal levels as seen in aspartate transaminase (35%), alanine transaminase (22.5%), alkaline phosphatase (20%), and gamma-glutamyl transaminase (35%). And whenever the protein, especially albumin was low there was an increased value of CRP and correspondingly with increased total and direct bilirubin levels. Conclusion: In our study liver function test was altered even before starting any treatment for SARS-CoV-2 indicates that LFT can be a tool to assess multiorgan involvement whenever the patient is going for complication or cytokine storm by doing serial measurements of liver function. ©@IJCRR.