Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: COVID-19 caused by SARS-COV-2 infection can lead to multi-organ injuries and significant mortality in severe and critical patients, especially among those individuals with type 2 diabetes. The aim of our study was to assess associations between severe COVID-19 pneumonia and clinical and biological characteristics of patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: This was a retrospective and descriptive study including 40 Tunisians patients hospitalized for severe form of covid 19. The study was conducted the Military Hospital of Tunis during a period of 3 months (April -June 2021). The diagnosis was retained by a positive RT-PCR test and by the radiological aspect on the chest scanner. Statistics were performed using SPSS 20.

Results: The averge age was 71±8.57 years [58-85 years]. A male predominance was noted (71.4%). The averge BMI was 28.8 ± 5.6 kg/m^². Two thirds of the patients were overweight and 35.7% were obese. The average duration of diabetes was 11.4 ± 4.3 years. Hypertension and dyslipidemia were noted in 71.4%, 28.6% of cases. Two thirds of our population (78.6%) were treated with oral antidiabetics et 21.4% with insulin. The mean CRP was 94.7±42.3 mg/l. Dimer tests were positive in 43% of patients and 7.1% had cytolysis. Patients had severe COVID-19 pneumonia (>50%) in 21.4% of cases. The average length of hospital stay was 12.4±7.6 days. Patients with severe pneumonia had a longer length of hospital stay (P < 0.001) and a tendency to have a longer duration of diabetes (P = 0.06). Furthermore, we did not noted an association between age, BMI, insulin treatement and CRP level, and severe COVID-19 pneumonia (P = 0.4, P = 0.6, P = 0.7 and P = 0.5 respectively).

Conclusion: Our study showed that severe COVID-19 pneumonia was associated with length of hospital stay in patients with type 2 diabetes. Further studies need to be done, to understand the relationship between severe COVID-19 pneumonia and characteristics of patients with type 2 diabetes, to provide special treatment for this high-risk population.