NCT04979091

Sex Hormone Dysregulations Are Associated With Critical Illness in COVID-19 Patients

Low Testosterone and High Estradiol Are Associated With Disease Severity in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients - a Retrospective Analysis

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 100 (actual)
• Sponsor: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Males develop more severe SARS-CoV-2 infection related disease outcome than females. Herein, sex hormones were repeatedly proposed to play an important role in Covid-19 pathophysiology and immunity. However, it is yet unclear whether sex hormones are associated with Covid-19 outcome in males and females. In this study, we analyzed sex hormones, cytokine and chemokine responses as well as performed a large profile analysis of 600 metabolites in critically-ill male and female Covid-19 patients in comparison to healthy controls and patients with coronary heart diseases as a prime Covid-19 comorbidity. We here show that dysregulated sex hormones, IFN-γ levels and unique metabolic signatures are associated with critical illness in Covid-19 patients. Both, male and female Covid-19 patients, present elevated estradiol levels which positively correlates with IFN-γ levels. Male Covid-19 patients additionally display severe testosterone and triglyceride deficiencies as compared to female patients and healthy controls. Our results suggest that male Covid-19 patients suffer from multiple metabolic disorders, which may lead to higher risk for fatal outcome. These findings will help to understand molecular pathways involved in Covid-19 pathophysiology.

Conditions

• Covid19
• Critical Illness

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	Sex Hormones	A panel of 13 hormones was measured in plasma samples of COVID-19 patients (total testosterone, free testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, androstenedione, 17-β-estradiol, estrone, sex hormone-binding globulin, thyroid-stimulating hormone, free triiodothyronine (T3), free thyroxine (T4), luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone and cortisol).

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-03-08
• Primary completion: 2021-02-26
• Completion: 2021-05-31
• First posted: 2021-07-27
• Last updated: 2021-08-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Germany