Incidence of New Onset Diabetes in COVID-19 Patients: A Follow up Study in Pakistan

Introduction: Coronavirus infections are mild, but fatal cases also befall. Lethal cases have occurred in patients with comorbidities specially diabetes mellitus that may have bidirectional relationship. The route of entry of coronavirus is Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors; these are expressed in key metabolic organs including pancreatic beta cells. Development of diabetes is via diverse etiologies. There is desperate need of research to see factors that cause new onset diabetes on a background of COVID-19.

Methods: In this follow up study 91 COVID positive patients of age 18-80 years were selected from COVID ICU via consecutive sampling after ethical approval and written informed consent. BMI, HbA1C and BSF were taken as baseline. Subjects with normal BSF and HbA1c were labelled normal, and selected for follow up. On two follow up visits done on 2nd and 6th month, BSF values were checked. Subjects with BSF more than 126 mg/dl were labelled as diabetic.

Results: Out of 91 patients, 69 (75.8%) were labelled 'diabetics' and 22 (24.2%) remained nondiabetic. These values were statistically significant with p-value < 0.05.

Conclusion: Sizable number of previously euglycemic patients developed new onset diabetes post COVID-19 infection in our study. This conclusion opens new horizon for research in terms of exploring underlying pathophysiology, contributory risk factors, transient or permanent nature of disease and finally management approaches with long term follow up goals of these newly diagnosed diabetes post COVID-19. Coordinated worldwide efforts are required to focus these concerns.