Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with
pulmonary embolism, a condition mechanistically related to
vascular endothelial growth factor (
VEGF). Our objective was to identify whether
VEGF levels, measured at hospital admission, may predict the occurrence of
pulmonary embolism (and other
thrombosis) during hospitalization. Of a total of 139 patients included in the study, a
pulmonary embolism occurred in 4%, other
thrombosis in 16%, and 80% remained
thrombus free. Clinical and laboratory data at admission were similar among groups.
VEGF levels were elevated in
COVID-19 patients compared with 38 healthy controls (50.7 versus 15.0 pg/mL; P < 0.001), with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.776. At a cutoff point >15.7 pg/mL,
VEGF showed 64.7% sensitivity, 92.1% specificity, and a positive likelihood ratio of 8.2 to discriminate
COVID-19. In
COVID-19,
VEGF levels were not different in patients with
pulmonary embolism, other
thrombosis, and
thrombus-free patients (15.0 versus 84.0 versus 48.5 pg/mL, respectively; P = 0.19).
VEGF correlated with
C-reactive protein (ρ = 0.25),
fibrinogen (ρ = 0.28),
ferritin (ρ = 0.18), and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (ρ = 0.20). Our study showed that
VEGF is elevated in sera from patients with
COVID-19 on arrival at the hospital and its levels correlate with inflammatory markers, although they are unable to predict the appearance of
pulmonary embolism during hospitalization.