Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov;78(2):373-379.
doi: 10.1007/s12020-022-03140-6. Epub 2022 Jul 30.

COVID-19 patients with altered steroid hormone levels are more likely to have higher disease severity

Sevilay Sezer  1 , Ceylan Bal  2   3 , Ayşe Kaya Kalem  4 , Bircan Kayaaslan  4 , Fatma Eser  4 , İmran Hasanoglu  4 , Esragül Akıncı  5 , Rahmet Güner  4 , Özcan Erel  2   3 , Gülsen Yılmaz  2   3
Affiliations

COVID-19 patients with altered steroid hormone levels are more likely to have higher disease severity

Sevilay Sezer et al. Endocrine. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the correlations between the severity of the disease and serum steroid levels by analyzing the serum steroid levels in COVID-19 patients with different levels of disease progression and the control group.

Methods: Morning serum Aldosterone, 11-deoxycortisol, Androstenedione, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, Dihydrotestosterone (DHT), Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), Corticosterone, Dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), Estrone, Estradiol, Progesterone, 11-deoxycorticosterone, Cortisol, Corticosterone, Androsterone, Pregnenolone, 17-hydroxypregnenolone and 21-deoxycortisol levels were measured in 153 consecutive patients were grouped as mild, moderate, and severe based on the WHO COVID-19 disease severity classification and the control group. Steroid hormone levels were analyzed at once with a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method (LC-MS/MS).

Results: In our study, nearly all steroids were statistically significantly higher in the patients' group than in the control group (p < 0.001). Also, DHEA was an independent indicator of the disease severity with COVID-19 CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals that the alteration in steroid hormone levels was correlated with disease severity. Also, steroid hormone levels should be followed up during COVID-19 disease management.

Keywords: Adrenal Insufficiency; COVID-19; Steroids; Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
LC-MS/MS chromatogram for steroid hormones in mix solution. Numbers indicate the following metabolites. 1: Aldosterone; 2: Cortisol; 3: 21-deoxycortisol, 4: Corticosterone, 5: 11-deoxycortisol, 6: Androstenedione, 7: Estrone, 8: 11-deoxycorticosterone, 9: Testosterone 10: Estradiol, 11: Dehydroepiandrosterone, 12: 17-hydroxyprogesterone, 13: 17-hydroxypPregnenolone, 14: Dihydrotestosterone, 15: Progesterone, 16: Androsterone, 17: Pregnenolone
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distributions of Dehydroepiandrosterone male patients groups a Statistically significant than moderate group b Statistically significant than mild group
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Distributions of 11-Deoxycorticosterone levels between groups a Statistically significant than control group b Statistically significant than mild group. c Statistically significant than moderate group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Meter. Corona Virus Update (Live). Available from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. [Accessed 23 APRIL 2022]
    1. M. Wiegand et al. Unquantifiably low aldosterone concentrations are prevalent in hospitalised COVID-19 patients but may not be revealed by chemiluminescent immunoassay. medRxiv 2022 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pal R. COVID-19, hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and clinical implications. Endocrine. 2020;68(2):251–252. doi: 10.1007/s12020-020-02325-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pal R, Banerjee M. COVID-19 and the endocrine system: exploring the unexplored. J. Endocrinological Investig. 2020;43(7):1027–1031. doi: 10.1007/s40618-020-01276-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Leow MKS, et al. Hypocortisolism in survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) Clin. Endocrinol. 2005;63(2):197–202. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2265.2005.02325.x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed