Coronavirus leads to diabetes in some patients, say docs
1 min read 16 Nov 2020, 08:00 PM ISTWhether the patients will become permanently diabetic needs to be explored, the authors said
PremiumThe coronavirus infection is leading to the onset of diabetes mellitus (DM), according to a research paper published in the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, the official publication of the Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College and King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.
The onset of hyperglycaemia, or excessive blood glucose, was noticed in some covid-19 patients, without any family history of diabetes and near-normal HbA1c levels, or the levels of haemoglobin linked to blood sugar, said the study by V.K. Shivane, A.R. Lila and T.R. Bandgar from the department of endocrinology, KEM Hospital.
Diabetes occurs when the body does not produce hormone insulin or does not use it efficiently. Insulin regulates the amount of glucose in the blood. There is a need to establish a registry of “covid-19 related DM" from various covid centres and hospitals of India, said the authors.
Whether the patients will become permanently diabetic or achieve remission also needs to be explored.
“This so-called ‘covid-19 related DM’ is a matter of concern during management. Eventually, all of them are being managed by subcutaneous or intravenous insulin to achieve normoglycemia, or normal levels of sugar, during hospitalization. However, ‘covid-19 related DM’ may achieve normoglycemia with insulin early compared to patients with pre-existing DM, but associated steroid use may complicate the picture," said the authors.
Similar trends were noticed worldwide, according to the study. Diabetes continues to be the major risk factor for covid-19 mortality. However, specialists said covid-19 also has the potential to cause diabetes.
Around 47% of the people succumbing to covid-19 infection were below 60 years and were suffering from hypertension, diabetes and cardiac diseases, among other comorbidities, the Union health ministry had said on 10 October.
