The COVID-19 coronavirus disease's clinical spectrum ranges from a minor illness to a major illness. Multi-organ failure brought on by the so-called "cytokine storm," respiratory failure, septic shock, and/or septic shock can be seen in patients with severe diseases. The main way that inflammatory cytokines affect iron metabolism is through increasing the production of the rarely measured hormone peptide hepcidin. High hepcidin levels have been associated with the severity of COVID-19. In this study, a sample of COVID-19 patients who had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Policlinico Tor Vergata in Rome, Italy, had their levels of hepcidin retrospectively examined. 38 people were included in the trial between November 2020 and May 2021. Based on the clinical outcome, patients were split into two groups: survivors and non-survivors. A number of common laboratory parameters were also evaluated while the patients were in the ICU, and the levels of these indicators were connected to the outcomes. There were statistically significant differences in the levels of hepcidin, D-dimer, IL-6, LDH, NLR, neutrophils, CRP, TNF-, and transferrin across the groups. Particularly, hepcidin levels revealed significantly different median values (88 ng/mL vs 146 ng/mL) between survivors and non-survivors. Using ROC curves analysis, it was discovered that hepcidin was an effective biomarker for predicting the severity and mortality of COVID-19 in ICU patients, with sensitivity and specificity values of 74% and 76%, respectively, at a cut-off of 127 (ng/mL).
