Vitamin C levels in patients with SARS-CoV-2-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome

Vitamin C is an antioxidant with anti-inflammatory and immune-supportive properties.Its levels are decreased in patients with sepsis-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).Moreover, a significant number of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease developed ARDS [1].Therefore, we hypothesized that ARDS coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients may present vitamin C deficiency.Plasma vitamin C levels in a population of adult ICU patients COVID-19 who met ARDS criteria according to the Berlin definition [2] were prospectively measured.The study was approved by the local Clinical Research Ethics Committee (PR (AG)270/ 2020).Main characteristics of the population included are presented in Table 1.None of the patients included presented shock or sepsis on admission.Equally, no bacterial co-infection during their ICU course was documented.All patients survived.Vitamin C was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode detector (detection limit 1.5 mg/L).