Sex hormone alterations and systemic inflammation in a group of male COPD smokers and their correlation with the +138 insA/delA endothelin-1 gene polymorphism. A case-control study.

Levels of testosterone correlated to FEV1, hypoxemia and weakly to CRP. The synchronous presence of the +138 insA/delA SNP resulted in even greater sex hormone level decline probably due to the presence of a more intense systemic inflammation.