Impacts of Diabetes Mellitus on Clinical and Para-clinical Parameters Among COVID-19 Patients

Purpose: Diabetes has several adverse effects on patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, the determinants of this effect are still poorly understood. It is tried in current study to evaluate impacts of type 2 diabetes, with and without other comorbidities, on the clinical, para-clinical, and outcome parameters among COVID-19 patients.

Methods: A case series was applied, which involved 406 COVID-19 patients admitted in the city of Shiraz, south-central Iran, from February 20 to April 29, 2020. Demographic data, medical history, laboratory finding, chest computed tomography (CT) scan reports, and clinical outcomes of patients with and without type 2 diabetes were compared.

Results: Results of the above-mentioned comparison showed that comorbidities such as HTN (35.5% vs. 13.7%,  < 0.001) and CVDs (26.2% vs. 13.4%,  = 0.002) were significantly more prevalent among the diabetic patients. Also, there was not any considerable difference between the chest CT severity parameters of both groups. After excluding all of the comorbidities except diabetes, it was found that the diabetic COVID-19 patients without other comorbidities had lower oxygen saturation level ( < 0.001), higher AST level ( = 0.037), higher BUN ( = 0.005), higher WBC counts ( = 0.025), lower lymphocyte counts ( = 0.029), and longer ICU admission duration (0.72 ± 2.83 vs. 1.71 ± 4.68,  = 0.046).

Conclusion: The diabetic COVID patients are at higher risks of hypoxemia, longer ICU stays, and more renal and hepatic dysfunction. These achievements could be useful in order to prevent the deterioration of clinical conditions among diabetic COVID-19 patients; also, they have to be considered in the management strategies.