Comparative Analysis of Laboratory Profiles and Clinical Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients with and without Diabetes: A Single Center Study

The present study aimed to compare the clinical outcome as well as laboratory and clinical profiles of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with and without diabetes.

The present study is a retrospective study that included 266 non-diabetic and 259 diabetic patients who were admitted to a tertiary healthcare center in South India between March 2021 to April 2021.The objective of the study was to compare the clinical outcome and laboratory profiles of COVID-19 patients with and without diabetes. Patients aged 18 years or above, diagnosed with COVID-19 by either RT-PCR and/or HRCT chest as well as diagnosed to be diabetic or non-diabetic were included in the study. After observing inclusion and exclusion criteria, the study included patients whose medical records were scrutinized, and data was analyzed using SPSS v 28.0 and the continuous variables were expressed in mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum value. The categorical variables are expressed in frequency and percentage. Comparison was done using binomial test and Mann-Whitney U test while association was tested using Fischer exact test.

Primary outcomes show that higher number of patients with diabetes (84.94%) presented with abnormal Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels and this difference was found to a statistically significant (p<0.001). Hypertension was the most common comorbidity among both diabetic (46.72%) and non-diabetic (33.52%) patients and it was shown to be associated with clinical outcome and oxygen requirement (p<0.001). A significant difference was observed in the mean score of age, total count, IL-6 and number of days admitted between COVID-19 subjects of both groups with the mean being higher in the group of patients with diabetes (p<0.001).

The results of the present study reinforce available evidence that IL-6 levels can be used to ascertain progression, morbidity, and mortality to ensure proper management of COVID-19 patients and that diabetes state results in higher total count, IL-6 and number of days admitted.