Covid-induced diabetes can only be temporary: Half of the patients have normalized blood sugar after leaving the hospital and less than 10% need insulin after the first year, the study found.
- Cases of diabetes associated with COVID-19 infection may be a temporary immune response to the virus, a study finds
- The researchers found that 26 of the 64 who were diagnosed with diabetes after Covid withdrew after being released from the hospital
- Only five of the patients still needed insulin a year later, and researchers suspect that these patients had undiagnosed cases of diabetes before Covid
- Temporary cases of diabetes may be the result of an immune response to the virus
Diabetes caused by Covid may be a temporary reaction of the body to the virus, rather than a constant development of the disease, a new study finds.
Boston – based research team from Massachusetts The General Hospital, Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital found that in most people who suffer from diabetes after infection, their blood sugar returns to normal shortly after infection.
About 50 percent of patients who were suddenly diagnosed with diabetes had a decision after being discharged from the hospital.
Less than ten percent of patients in the study who needed insulin still needed insulin a year later.
There is also the possibility that many people suddenly diagnosed with diabetes when they were hospitalized with Covid actually already had the condition and simply did not know it.
Researchers have found that cases of diabetes caused by an immune response to COVID-19 are often resolved quickly. The small number of cases requiring long-term care are probably people who already had diabetes that they did not know about, researchers speculate (photo file)
Researchers who published their findings last month in Journal of Diabetes and Complicationscollected data from 1,902 patients with Covid from the first two waves of the pandemic from March to September 2020.
Patients were also followed up again in July 2021.
Of the study group, 594 showed signs of diabetes and 77 had a new diagnosis believed to be related to their Covid infection.
These 77 patients generally had more severe cases of Covid than the other 500 in the diabetes group, but their blood sugar levels were relatively lower.
“Diabetes diagnosed with COVID-19 is associated with lower glucose but higher inflammatory markers and intensive care, suggesting that stress hyperglycemia is a major physiological mechanism,” the researchers wrote.
Of the 77 people who were diagnosed with diabetes after Covid’s stay, 64 survived the infection and were followed by researchers 30 days later, and 26 regressed to normal blood sugar or prediabetes levels.
Of the remaining group, 36 continue to suffer from diabetes, and two cannot be classified.
Following nearly a year later, 16 members of the diabetes group lived well without the need for medication.
Only five needed plain insulin to survive, while 15 managed their condition with oral medications.
Although the acute form of Covid is likely to cause patients to suffer a spike in blood sugar as some kind of inflammatory response, researchers do not believe there is a high risk that it will be permanent.
They even suggest that many of these people may have had unknown cases of diabetes even before they were infected and only found out after they arrived at the hospital for treatment and were tested.
“It was estimated that there were 10 individuals in this cohort [Covid-caused diabetes] from their reception teams, but it was found that there was evidence of previous hyperglycemia in a detailed review of the chart, including a review of outpatient records, the researchers wrote.
People with diabetes are significantly more at risk of severe Covid infection than others, making this suspicion even more likely.
It is also likely that some people with long-term diabetes are in the ‘long-term Covid’ group, where people experience Covid’s symptoms long after recovery.
Symptoms caused by inflammation, called multisystemic inflammatory syndrome, are among the most common. Researchers believe that this diabetes is the cause of the body’s inflammatory response to Covid.