COVID-19 in Cirrhotic Patients; Is Portal Vein Thrombosis a Potential Complication?

Several studies showed that thromboembolic events increased in patients with corona virus infection, usually occurring in the elderly patients with severe illness, associated with comorbid diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is a rare venous thromboembolic disease occurring typically in patients with an underlying disease such as decompensated cirrhosis with or without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Aim: evaluate incidence of occurrence of acute PVT in cirrhotic patients infected with corona virus disease (COVID19). Methods: This cross sectional, observational control study involved 70 patients of liver cirrhosis: group A (28 patients with liver cirrhosis infected with COVID19), in addition to 42 patients with liver cirrhosis as controls matched for age and sex (group B). All patients were subjected to thorough medical history, routine investigations (complete blood count, liver and renal function tests), imaging (abdominal and Doppler ultrasonography to assess the presence of acute PVT), Serum ferritin, D dimer, C- reactive protein, and PCR of COVID19 for group A only. Results: There was significant difference between the two groups regard Doppler ultrasound finding as 3 of the patients of group A had PVT (10.7%), and one patient only had PVT (2.3%) in group B (p < 0.05). Conclusion: In cirrhotic patients with COVID19 infection portal vein thrombosis may be a potential complication even without hepatocellular carcinoma for further studies.Funding Statement: No Financial supportDeclaration of Interests: All authors declare no Conflict of interestEthics Approval Statement: Local Ethics Committee for human subject research reviewed and approved the study protocol and consent forms, all procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the national research committee.