Aim. To find out the clinical, pathogenetic and prognostic significance of vascular endothelial growth factor in the blood serum of patients with coronavirus disease with pneumonia in relation to the parameters of immune inflammation and haemostasis in assessing the risk of death.

Material and methods. We examined 123 patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with pneumonia. Laboratory examination of patients was carried out in accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine of 28.03.2020 No. 722. The patients were divided into groups depending on the outcome of the disease: 77 patients who recovered and 46 patients who died. The content of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) (total form) in the blood serum was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Immuno-Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd., Japan). Statistical data processing was performed in the program “Statistica for Windows 13”.

Results. It was found that in patients with coronavirus disease with pneumonia, the level of increase in serum VEGF (total form) was associated with the outcome of the disease. When patients were hospitalised on day 9.0 [7.0; 12.0] of illness, a serum VEGF level >32.04 pg/ml (AUC = 0.842, p < 0.001) indicated a high risk of adverse outcome, and after 7 days of treatment, with a VEGF level >58.79 pg/ml (AUC = 0.899, p < 0.001), there was a high probability of death. The correlation between the development of thrombotic complications and the level of VEGF increase in the blood serum both at the time of hospitalisation (gamma +0.32, p < 0.05) and after 7 days of treatment (gamma +0.37, p < 0.05) was established. The occurrence of thrombotic complications was more frequent in patients with a fatal outcome than in patients who had recovered (18.4 times, p = 0.000001). The level of VEGF in the blood serum >51.91 pg/ml (AUC = 0.680, p = 0.019) was prognostic of the risk of developing thrombotic complications only in the dynamics after 7 days of hospital treatment. The clinicopathogenetic role of increased serum VEGF in the progression of the disease in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia was demonstrated by statistically significant correlations.

Conclusions. In patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, VEGF (total form) level elevation in serum is associated with the risk of death. The threshold levels of VEGF, which are informative for prognosing the risk of unfavourable disease course at different follow-up periods, have been established.