In a new study from Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers found many COVID-19 patients newly diagnosed with diabetes during hospital admission may in fact have a temporary form of the disease related to the acute stress of the viral infection and may return to normal blood sugar levels soon after discharge.
These patients are more likely to be younger, non-white, and on Medicaid or uninsured compared to individuals with previously diagnosed diabetes, suggesting many of these “new-onset” cases may simply be pre-existing but undiagnosed diabetes.
High rates of newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus (NDDM) have been reported in COVID-19 hospital admissions around the world.
It is still unclear, however, if this phenomenon represents truly new diabetes or previously undiagnosed cases, what the cause of these elevated blood sugars may be, and whether patients’ blood sugars improve after resolution of COVID-19 infection.
In the study, the team looked at 594 individuals who exhibited signs of diabetes mellitus when admitted to MGH at the height of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Of that group, 78 had no known diagnosis of diabetes prior to admission.
Researchers learned that many of these newly diagnosed patients—versus those with pre-existing diabetes—had less severe blood sugar levels but more severe COVID-19.
Follow-up with this cohort after hospital discharge revealed that roughly half its members reverted to normal blood sugar levels and that only 8% required insulin after one year.
This suggests that newly diagnosed diabetes may be a transitory condition related to the acute stress of COVID-19 infection.
Indeed, this key finding supports the clinical argument that newly diagnosed diabetes is likely caused by insulin resistance—the inability of cells to properly absorb blood sugar in response to insulin, resulting in higher-than-normal build-up of glucose in the blood—rather than by insulin deficiency, caused by direct and permanent injury to the beta cells which manufacture insulin.
The results suggest that acute insulin resistance is the major mechanism underlying newly diagnosed diabetes in most patients with COVID-19, and that insulin deficiency if it occurs at all, is generally not permanent.
If you care about Covid, please read studies about the cause of severe disease and death in COVID-19, and a novel vaccine method to prevent COVID-19 infection.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about common nutrient that may be key to better diabetes treatments, and results showing this surgery can be a ‘cure’ for type 2 diabetes.
The study is published in the Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications and was conducted by Sara Cromer et al.
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