Can Serum Endocan Levels be Used as an Early Prognostic Marker for Endothelial Dysfunction in COVID-19?

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to investigate whether degree of pneumonia and COVID-19 prognosis are associated with serum endocan levels at the early stage, when vascular damage has started. Patients between the ages of 18–85 years who were hospitalized and followed up with a diagnosis of COVID-19 were included in the study. A total of 80 patients were divided into 2 groups as mild/moderate pneumonia and severe pneumonia. Serum endocan levels were measured on the 8th day from the onset of symptoms in all patients. Of the 80 patients included in the study, 56.3% were female and 43.8% were male. There was no significant relationship between serum endocan levels and degree of pneumonia ( P = .220) and prognosis of the disease ( P = .761). The correlation analysis indicated a weak positive correlation between serum endocan levels and lactate level in venous blood gas (r = .270; P = .037). During the 28-day follow-up, the mortality rate was 3.75%. It was determined that the serum endocan levels was not associated with the degree of pneumonia and was not an early prognostic marker for COVID-19.

Plasma Endocan as a Biomarker of Thrombotic Events in COVID-19 Patients

“…This finding was in line with the study of Medetalibeyoglu et al, even if endocan was not assayed with the same kit [ 20 ]. Very recently, a few studies reported the potential interest of serum endocan in the prognosis of COVID-19 [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. These studies focused on endocan’s ability to predict mortality [ 21 ] and to distinguish moderate from severe degrees of pneumonia [ 22 , 23 ], with different conclusions.…”

“…Very recently, a few studies reported the potential interest of serum endocan in the prognosis of COVID-19 [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. These studies focused on endocan’s ability to predict mortality [ 21 ] and to distinguish moderate from severe degrees of pneumonia [ 22 , 23 ], with different conclusions. While Guzel et al reported that endocan was not associated with the degree of pneumonia [ 22 ], Pascreau et al reported that elevated blood concentrations of endocan may distinguish moderate from severe acute respiratory distress syndrome during COVID-19 [ 23 ].…”

“…Of note, both teams studied endocan at days 3–8 of admission. None of these studies specifically focused on the potential role of endocan in identifying thrombotic injury in COVID-19 [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

“…Thromboinflammation, endotheliopathy and coagulopathy are frequent in severe COVID-19 [ 18 ], and thrombotic events are associated with worse prognoses in COVID-19 [ 19 ]. Very recently, several studies reported on potential interest in serum endocan as a potential marker in the diagnosis and prediction of disease severity in COVID-19 [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], and most of them also mentioned the importance of this marker’s connection with thrombosis. However, none of them specifically focused on the potential role of endocan in identifying thrombotic injury in COVID-19, nor investigate the mechanistic importance of endocan in thromboinflammation.…”

Systematic Review of Endocan as a Potential Biomarker of COVID-19

“…Subsequently, 48 articles were excluded due to various reasons, while one was added by reference searching, as described in Figure 1. Finally, eight studies, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] including 686 cases, were included in the systematic review. A detailed flowchart of the search and selection process is shown in Figure 1.…”