New-onset diabetes mellitus with COVID-19: Coincidence or cause

J Muthukrishnan; Abhinav Kumar Verma; K K Ashta; Vasu Vardhan

doi:10.1016/j.mjafi.2021.04.009

New-onset diabetes mellitus with COVID-19: Coincidence or cause

Med J Armed Forces India. 2021 Jul;77(Suppl 2):S483-S485. doi: 10.1016/j.mjafi.2021.04.009. Epub 2021 Jul 26.

Authors

J Muthukrishnan¹, Abhinav Kumar Verma², K K Ashta³, Vasu Vardhan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Consultant (Medicine) & Endocrinologist, Medical Division, Base Hospital, Delhi Cantt, India.
² Resident (Medicine), Base Hospital, Delhi Cantt, India.
³ Senior Adviser (Medicine), Base Hospital, Delhi Cantt, India.
⁴ Commandant, Base Hospital, Delhi Cantt, India.

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) was noted as the commonest comorbidity in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which contributed to worse prognosis in these patients. In some cases, we also noted new-onset DM detected during hospitalization for symptomatic COVID disease. We describe three such cases, where the patients presented with severe symptomatic hyperglycemia and ketoacidosis in two and hyperosmolality in one of them. Antibody to GAD-65 was negative and varying degrees of C-peptide secretion was noted after recovery in them. There was no clinical or biochemical evidence of exocrine pancreatic involvement noted during acute presentation or after the recovery. This interesting phenomenon of coexisting DM in symptomatic COVID-19 requires further studies to differentiate between coincidence or causation.

Keywords: Beta cell dysfunction; COVID-19; Diabetes mellitus; New onset.

Publication types

Case Reports