Fig. 1

Comparison of baseline serum HE4 in COVID-19 patients based on disease severity in contrast to non-COVID-19 severe sepsis subjects. Significantly higher baseline level of HE4 was measured in critically ill (n = 40) vs. severe COVID-19 subjects (n = 40) as well as mild COVID-19 patients (n = 19), while similarly elevated values were found in subjects with non-COVID-19 sepsis (n = 25) than critically ill COVID-19 (A). There were relatively higher HE4 levels in males than females in all subgroups, however, sex did not have a significant impact on HE4 (B). Age did not significantly influence HE4 concentrations in critically ill (C) and mild COVID-19 patients (P = 0,8015) (data not shown), while there was an increasing tendency in HE4 in the severe COVID-19 cohort (D). Dots represent single results, while bars indicate median value. In part A, the dashed line represents the cut-off value of HE4 (< 140 pmol/L) used in postmenopausal individuals. To compare the data of two groups, Mann-Whitney U test was applied