Long-term effects of COVID-19 in diabetic and non-diabetic patients

Front Public Health. 2022 Aug 15:10:963834. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.963834. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

The literature presents several reports of the impact of glycemic control and diabetes in the inflammatory and coagulatory response during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Nevertheless, the long-term impact of the COVID-19 in diabetic patients is still to be explored. Therefore, we recruited 128 patients and performed a longitudinal analysis on COVID-19-associated biomarkers of patients with COVID-19, tree and 6 months after COVID-19 recovery and put into perspective the possible long-term complication generated after COVID-19. In our investigation, we failed to verify any long-term modification on inflammatory biomarkers, but detected an increase in the glycemia and glycated hemoglobin in patients without any pre-existing history or diagnosis of diabetes (non-diabetic patients). Although diabetic and non-diabetic patients presented elevated levels of glycated hemoglobin, the c-peptide test indicated a normal beta cell function in all patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; complications; glycemic control; infection.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers
  • Blood Glucose / analysis
  • COVID-19*
  • Diabetes Mellitus*
  • Glycated Hemoglobin / analysis
  • Humans

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Blood Glucose
  • Glycated Hemoglobin A