MAFLD in COVID-19 patients: an insidious enemy.
Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol
; 14(10): 867-872, 2020 Oct.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-670232
ABSTRACT
The pandemic Sars-CoV-2 infection represents a dramatic health challenge worldwide. Pneumonia is considered the major damage caused by the virus. However, recent data have highlighted the impact of the Sars-CoV-2 related disease namely COVID-19 on the liver. Hepatic abnormalities significantly increase during COVID-19 and a more severe infection occurs in patients with pre-existing liver diseases, among which the most frequent is metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). It has been described that MAFLD patients had a higher risk of progression to severe COVID-19, higher abnormal liver tests and longer viral shedding time. The presence of fibrosis in MAFLD patients is another risk factor for severity of COVID-19. Due to the overgrowing prevalence of MAFLD, it could be speculated that a large proportion of the population might be at risk of severe COVID-19 and the identification of these patients possibly by using liver enzymes as risk predictors may be crucial for an early diagnosis and for the management of the infection.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Metabolic Syndrome
/
Fatty Liver
/
Pandemics
/
Betacoronavirus
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
English
Journal:
Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol
Journal subject:
Gastroenterology
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
17474124.2020.1801417
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