Copyright
©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virol. Nov 25, 2022; 11(6): 435-442
Published online Nov 25, 2022. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v11.i6.435
Published online Nov 25, 2022. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v11.i6.435
Cholestatic liver injury: A rare but fatal complication during and after COVID-19 infection
Wachira Wongtanasarasin, Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
Wachira Wongtanasarasin, Department of Emergency Medicine, UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA 95817, United States
Author contributions: Wongtanasarasin W designed the protocol, contributed to data collection, data evaluation, data visualization, wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and critically reviewed the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares that they have no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wachira Wongtanasarasin, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, 110 Intavarorot Street, Sriphum, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand. wachir_w@hotmail.com
Received: August 9, 2022
Peer-review started: August 9, 2022
First decision: August 29, 2022
Revised: September 21, 2022
Accepted: October 19, 2022
Article in press: October 19, 2022
Published online: November 25, 2022
Peer-review started: August 9, 2022
First decision: August 29, 2022
Revised: September 21, 2022
Accepted: October 19, 2022
Article in press: October 19, 2022
Published online: November 25, 2022
Core Tip
Core Tip: The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is not only regarded as a respiratory tract disease but also demonstrates a wide range of systemic consequences, including the biliary tract. A significant increase in serum alkaline phosphatase and signs of biliary injury on imaging and/or pathology are the hallmarks of COVID-19-associated cholangiopathy. Direct viral invasion, ischemic injury related to microvascular coagulopathy, drug-induced cholestatic liver injury, alteration of gut microbiota, and cytokine release syndrome are proposed as potential explanations for cholangiopathy associated with severe COVID-19 infection.