A case series of COVID‐19 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Li, Yang; Li, Chunyang; Wang, Jian; Zhu, Chuanwu; Zhu, Li; Ji, Fang; Liu, Longgen; Xu, Tianmin; Zhang, Biao; Xue, Leyang; Yan, Xiaomin; Huang, Rui; Wu, Chao; Yan, Xuebing

Previous studies reported that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) was likely to result in liver injury. However, few studies reported the impacts of COVID‐19 on liver function in patients with chronic liver diseases. We aimed to describe a case series of COVID‐19 patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Confirmed hospitalized COVID‐19 patients from hospitals in 10 cities of Jiangsu province, China were retrospectively included between January 18, 2020, and February 26, 2020. Demographic information, epidemiologic data, clinical features and treatment data were extracted from medical records. Seven COVID‐19 patients with chronic HBV infection were included. Six (85.7%) patients were male. The patients aged from 33 years to 49 years. Two patients had HBV‐related cirrhosis. One patients (14.3%) were positive for serum hepatitis B virus e antigen. On admission, 1 (14.3%) patients had mildly elevated ALT level (>40 U/L) and 1 (14.3%) had elevated AST level (>40 U/L). The serum albumin level and platelet counts were decreased in 2 patients with HBV‐related liver cirrhosis. Three (42.9%) patients had elevated ALT level and 2 (28.6%) patients had elevated AST level in hospitalization. However, the peak ALT and AST level during hospitalization was 51 U/L and 44 U/L, respectively. As of February 29, 2020, all patients were discharged. No patient was admitted to the intensive care units or developed liver failure during hospitalization. The abnormalities of liver function are not uncommon on COVID‐19 patients with chronic HBV infection in our case series. However, no patient developed severe liver‐related complications during hospitalization. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.