ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To analyze the impact of hyperglycemia on the clinical outcome of COVID-19 in patients with newly diagnosed diabetes (NDD). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of 3114 cases of COVID-19 without pre-existing diabetes, 351 of which had NDD, in Hubei Province, China. The Cox regression model was used to calculate the risk of adverse clinical outcomes comparing the NDD vs non-NDD group before and after propensity score-matched (PSM) analysis. Patients with NDD were further divided into a sustained hyperglycemia group, a fluctuating group, and a remitted group based on their blood glucose levels during hospitalization as well as into hypoglycemic agent users and nonusers. RESULTS: Compared to the non-NDD individuals, individuals with NDD had a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted HR after PSM, 2.65; 95% CI, 1.49-4.72; P = 0.001) and secondary outcomes involving organ damage during the 28-day follow-up period. Subgroup analyses indicated that among individuals with NDD, the individuals with remitted hyperglycemia had the lowest 28-day mortality, whereas those with sustained hyperglycemia had the highest (IRR 24.27; 95% CI, 3.21-183.36; P < 0.001). Moreover, individuals treated with hypoglycemic agents had significantly lower all-cause mortality than those not treated with hypoglycemic agents (IRR 0.08; 95% CI, 0.01-0.56; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our study reinforces the clinical message that NDD is strongly associated with poor outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, resolved hyperglycemia in the later phase of the disease and the use of hypoglycemic agents were associated with improved prognosis in patients with NDD.
ABSTRACT
Novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world. Individuals with immune dysregulation and/or on immunosuppressive therapy, such as rheumatic patients, are considered at greater risk for infections. However, the risks of patients with each subcategory of rheumatic diseases have not been reported. Here, we identified 100 rheumatic patients from 18,786 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in 23 centers affiliated to Hubei COVID-19 Rheumatology Alliance between January 1 and April 1, 2020. Demographic information, medical history, length of hospital stay, classification of disease severity, symptoms and signs, laboratory tests, disease outcome, computed tomography, and treatments information were collected. Compared to gout and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients, patients with connective tissue disease (CTD) tend to be more severe after COVID-19 infection (p = 0.081). CTD patients also had lower lymphocyte counts, hemoglobin, and platelet counts (p values were 0.033, < 0.001, and 0.071, respectively). Hydroxychloroquine therapy and low- to medium-dose glucocorticoids before COVID-19 diagnosis reduced the progression of COVID-19 to severe/critical conditions (p = 0.001 for hydroxychloroquine; p = 0.006 for glucocorticoids). Our data suggests that COVID-19 in CTD patients may be more severe compared to patients with AS or gout.