Table 2.
Clinical characteristics and selected laboratory abnormalities of COVID-19 patients with and without thyroid dysfunction.
| Thyroid dysfunction* (N = 52) Mean ± SD or n (%) | Normal (N = 32) Mean ± SD or n (%) | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | |||
| Male | 35 (66.0%) | 18 (34.0%) | 0.308 |
| Female | 17 (54.8%) | 14 (45.2%) | |
| Clinical classifications on admission | |||
| Mild and moderate | 5 (23.8%) | 16 (76.2%) | 0.000 |
| Severe and critical | 47 (74.6%) | 16 (25.4%) | |
| Viral nucleic acid cleaning time (days) | 14.1 ± 9.4 | 10.6 ± 8.3 | 0.088 |
| Thyroid auto-antibodies | |||
| TPOAb (IU/ml, normal range 0–5.61) | 23.95 ± 38.12 | 24.71 ± 57.08 | 0.945 |
| TGAb (IU/ml, normal range 0–4.11) | 35.05 ± 142.01 | 20.98 ± 47.31 | 0.613 |
| Cytokines | |||
| IL-6 (pg/ml; normal range 0–6.61) | 59.27 ± 98.24 | 51.99 ± 95.17 | 0.748 |
| IL-10 (pg/ml; normal range 0–2.31) | 8.15 ± 10.92 | 6.11 ± 7.58 | 0.378 |
| TNF-α (pg/ml; normal range 0–33.27) | 69.14 ± 259.33 | 31.27 ± 38.23 | 0.438 |
| IFN-γ (pg/ml; normal range 0–20.06) | 32.92 ± 73.10 | 30.92 ± 47.39 | 0.895 |
| Blood routine tests | |||
| Leucocytes (x109/L; normal range 4–10) | 8.71 ± 5.33 | 4.92 ± 1.64 | 0.000 |
| Neutrophils (x109/L; normal range 2–7) | 7.97 ± 5.30 | 3.40 ± 1.51 | 0.000 |
| Lymphocytes (x109/L; normal range 0.8–4) | 0.62 ± 0.33 | 1.09 ± 0.41 | 0.000 |
| Platelets (x109/L; normal range 83–303) | 189.13 ± 71.13 | 209.38 ± 75.93 | 0.221 |
| Haemoglobin (g/L; normal range: male 131–172, female 113–151) |
132.50 ± 17.14 | 137.16 ± 15.69 | 0.216 |
| Infection-related biomarkers | |||
| Procalcitonin (ng/L; normal range 0–0.5) | 0.22 ± 0.46 | 0.06 ± 0.45 | 0.054 |
| C reactive protein (mg/ml; normal range 0–8) | 38.14 ± 37.01 | 15.60 ± 17.73 | 0.002 |
| Blood biochemistry | |||
| Globulin (g/L; normal range 20–40) | 29.34 ± 5.85 | 27.82 ± 4.16 | 0.204 |
TPOAb, thyroid peroxidase antibody; TGAb, thyroglobulin antibody; IL-6, interleukin-6; IL-10, interleukin-10; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor α; IFN-γ, interferon-γ.
p value in bold was regarded as statistically significant.
*Thyroid dysfunction indicates any abnormalities in the levels of TT4, TT3, or TSH.