{"doi":"10.1016/j.wfumbo.2024.100074","title":"Lasting liver injury following COVID-19 infection characterized by ultrasound shear wave elastography","abstract":"To assess for lasting hepatic injury using ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) in patients following COVID-19 infection. In this retrospective cohort study, patients with SWE exams between January 2019 and 2022 were categorized into three groups: 1) post-COVID-19 subjects with positive COVID-19 PCR assay, 2) random sample of contemporaneous unexposed patients with only negative prior COVID-19 PCR tests, and 3) random sample of pre-pandemic patients to address possible undiagnosed COVID-19 infection in the contemporaneous group. The average difference in median Young's modulus between post-COVID-19 patients and controls was calculated using a linear regression model after controlling for confounders. 130 patients (mean age ± SD, 56 years ± 13; 66 women) were evaluated, including 30 patients after COVID-19 infection (mean age ± SD, 53 years ± 11; 15 women), 50 contemporaneous unexposed patients (mean age ± SD, 55 years ± 13; 27 men), and 50 pre-pandemic patients (mean age ± SD, 58 years ± 13; 28 women). SWE scans were performed on General Electric LOGIQ E9 or E10 an average of 44 (range, 12–81) weeks after COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 infection was associated with an average increase in median Young's modulus of 1.5 kPa (95 % CI [0.44, 2.355], p = 0.006) after controlling for age, sex, obesity, history of chronic liver disease, and time period. Post-COVID-19 patients had higher liver stiffness compared to contemporaneous controls (median = 7.58 vs 5.99 kPa, p = 0.001) but not pre-pandemic controls (median = 7.00 kPa, p = 0.51). COVID-19 infection is associated with increased liver stiffness, which may reflect lasting hepatic injury such as ongoing inflammation or the development of fibrosis. US SWE may serve as a noninvasive tool for long-term liver health monitoring after COVID-19 infection.","journal":"WFUMB Ultrasound Open","year":2024,"id":450942,"datarank":0.24141568686511508,"base_score":1.6094379124341003,"endowment":1.6094379124341003,"self_citation_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.24141568686511508,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9553,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":361225,"name":"Theodore T. Pierce","orcid":"0000-0003-3244-0994","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1271419,"name":"Madeleine Sertic","orcid":"0000-0002-8464-7754","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1048944,"name":"Siddhi Hegde","orcid":"0000-0003-4409-9295","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1155916,"name":"David Hunt","orcid":"0000-0003-4230-0207","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":361223,"name":"Arinc Ozturk","orcid":"0000-0002-5335-3737","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":338780,"name":"Anthony E. Samir","orcid":"0000-0002-7801-8724","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1271418,"name":"Firouzeh Heidari","orcid":"0000-0002-8204-9726","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":38,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:02:28.969209Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}