Clinical features and predictive factors related to liver injury in SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variant-infected patients

Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Delta and Omicron variants have become the dominant variants worldwide, and studies focused on liver injury in these patients are limited. Materials and methods In this study, 157 SARS-CoV-2-infected patients were enrolled, including 77 Delta variant-infected patients and 80 Omicron variant-infected patients. Liver injury data and clinical data were summarized and compared between patients infected with the two variants, additionally, patients with or without liver injury were also compared and multivariate analysis was performed to explore the predictive factors related to liver injury in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. Results Liver injury was found in 18 (23.4%)/15 (18.8%) in Delta/Omicron variant-infected patients on admission, and 4 (5.2%)/1 (1.3%) in Delta/Omicron variant-infected patients during hospitalization, respectively. The ratios of liver injury did not differ between the two groups (chi(2) = 1.571; P = 0.210). Among these patients, 17 (77.3%) and 12 (75.0%) Delta and Omicron variant-infected patients were considered to be related to SARS-CoV-2 infection, the biomarkers of liver function were mildly elevated, dominated by the parameter of cholangiocyte injury: 76.5% (13/17) and 83.3% (10/12) in Delta and Omicron variant-infected patients, and most of these patients recovered to normal during follow-up. Multivariate analysis showed that male sex [odds ratio (OR), 4.476; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.235-16.222; P = 0.023] and high levels of peak viral load in the nasopharynx (OR, 3.022; 95% CI, 1.338-6.827; P = 0.008) were independent factors related to liver injury. Conclusion Cholangiocyte injury biomarkers are dominated in Delta and Omicron variant-infected patients, male sex and high levels of peak viral load in the nasopharynx are predictive factors related to liver injury in SARS-CoV-2-infected patients.