Association of liver abnormalities with in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-19

•Levels of AST and D-Bil elevated early after the symptom onset in deceased patients and showed disparity compared with that in discharged patients throughout the clinical course of COVID-19.•Abnormal admission AST and D-Bil levels were independent predictors of COVID-19 mortality.•A novel nomogram was built based on admission AST and D-Bil levels as well as other baseline characteristics to predict the in-hospital mortality of COVID-19.•Hepatitis B infection was not found to be associated with the risk of lethal outcome in patients with COVID-19.