Aim: In this study, we aimed to examine the change in Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) levels and to determine the prognostic value of HIF-1α in COVID-19 patients receiving high-flow oxygen therapy.Materials and Methods: Our study was conducted on 30 patients who were followed up in the intensive care unit and 30 healthy volunteers. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay method was used to measure HIF-1α concentrations. Correlations of HIF-1α levels with clinical, biochemical and radiographic data were analyzed.Results: When the HIF-1α levels of discharged and non-survivors COVID-19 patients were compared, it was found to be significantly higher in non-surviving patients (p = 0.016). Serum levels of HIF-1α in the COVID-19 group were significantly higher than in the control group (p0.001). When the presence of subpleural and fibrotic bands on chest X-ray and HIF-1α levels were compared, a significant difference was found (p0.001). Ac-cording to the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis results, the cut-off value for HIF-1α was 0.41, the sensitivity was 87%, the specificity was 89%, and the area under the ROC curve value was 0.95.Conclusion: We found that COVID-19 patients with severe disease have a significantly higher serum HIF-1α concentration. HIF-1α may be a potential therapeutic target for virus-induced inflammatory diseases and COVID-19.
Deniz et al. (Thu,) studied this question.