Background and purpose Fatty liver is one of the most common pre-existing illnesses; it can cause liver injury, leading to further complications in coronavirus disease 2019 patients. Our goal is to determine if pre-existing fatty liver is more prevalent in hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared to patients admitted before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and determine the disease severity among fatty liver patients. Experimental approach This retrospective study involves a case and a control group consisting of 1162 patients; the case group contains hospitalized COVID-19 patients with positive PCR tests and available chest CT-scan; the control group contains patients with available chest CT-scan previous to the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients’ data such as liver Hounsfield unit, hospitalization length, number of affected lobes, and total lungs involvement score were extracted and compared between the patients. Results The findings indicate that 37.9% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients have a pre-existing fatty liver, which is significantly higher ( P < 0.001) than the prevalence of pre-existing fatty liver in control group patients (9.02%). In comparison to hospitalized non-fatty liver COVID-19 patients, data from hospitalized COVID-19 patients with fatty liver indicate a longer hospitalization length (6.81 ± 4.76 P = 0.02), a higher total lungs involvement score (8.73 ± 5.28 P < 0.001), and an increased number of affected lobes (4.42 ± 1.2 P < 0.001). Conclusion The statistical analysis shows fatty liver is significantly more prevalent among COVID-19 against non-COVID-19 patients, and they develop more severe disease and tend to be hospitalized for more extended periods.
【저자키워드】 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Fatty liver, Illness severity, Stay length, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, coronavirus disease, pandemic, Hospitalized, Hospitalization, COVID-19 pandemic, severity, lung, Prevalence, Retrospective study, Chest, Patient, Liver injury, Complication, liver, patients, COVID-19 patients, hospitalized COVID-19 patient, severe disease, statistical analysis, Hounsfield unit, Non-COVID-19 patients, control group, lobe, positive PCR test, lobes, chest CT-scan, approach, prevalent, Result, affected, develop, significantly more, the disease, determine, significantly higher, the SARS-CoV-2, 【제목키워드】 coronavirus disease, Hospitalization, disease severity, role,