Deciphering gender disparities in laboratory biomarkers among deceased COVID-19 patients in Erbil city-Iraq: A retrospective study

Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 was a new strain of the Coronaviridae family. It caused the coronavirus disease in December 2019 that first arose in Wuhan, China, and it developed into a worldwide health issue. COVID-19 gives rise to a wide range of symptoms which can range from having no symptoms to having extensive fatal pneumonia. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to figure out how infecting the virus could influence and impact the various laboratory biomarkers among dead male and female patients. Patients and Methods: The data and statistics were obtained from the dead patients of West Emergency Hospital and the data was investigated directly. The investigation was conducted from June 1st to November 1st, 2020. Epidemiological, clinical as well as lab data of approximately 659 dead cases of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals were examined in that period. A real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique was applied to confirm infecting of SARS-CoV-2. The deceased cases were categorized into 2 fractions, which were a male and female group. The male group had 407 individuals and the female group had 252 individuals. Results: This study revealed that the male cases had lower lymphocyte and platelet counts than females but substantially higher levels of urea and creatinine, also the male cases were older compared to the female cases. However, D-dimer and C-reactive protein (CRP ) levels did not indicate any notable differences between the two groups. Conclusion: The study showed a gender-situated differences in the laboratory biomarkers of dead COVID-19 cases.