frequency of diabetes mellitus and newly diagnosed hyperglycemia and their impacts on hospitalized covid-19 patients

Background: the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic and its associated morbidities are a great global concern. diabetes mellitus (dm) is associated with adverse clinical outcomes and high mortality in patients with covid-19. objectives: this study examined the frequency of dm, newly diagnosed hyperglycemia, and their impacts on hospitalized patients with covid-19. methods: this retrospective study examined 810 medical records of pcr-confirmed covid-19 patients admitted to razi hospital, ahvaz, iran. the clinical presentations, severity, and impacts of covid-19 were compared between patients with and without dm. disease severity was determined based on the news2 scoring system. results: this study included 810 medical records of covid-19 patients, of whom 326 had pre-existing dm, and 484 were non-dm. the rates of diabetes and newly diagnosed hyperglycemia were 40.2% and 11.2%, respectively. the most common underlying diseases were hypertension (35.3%), ischemic heart disease (17.9%), and chronic kidney disease (11.9%), which were higher in people with diabetes than non-diabetics. the rate of acute kidney injury was higher in patients with diabetes than in non-diabetics (30.7% vs. 19.2%; p < 0.001) and in patients with severe covid-19 than in those whose disease was not severe (27.8% vs. 21.5%; p = 0.04). the rates of severe covid-19 (46.3% vs. 34.7%; p = 0.093), icu admission (40.7% vs. 27.4%; p = 0.012), and mortality (18.5% vs. 10.5%; p = 0.079) were higher in patients with newly diagnosed hyperglycemia than in euglycemic patients. conclusions: this study showed that covid-19 infection is linked with newly diagnosed hyperglycemia and pre-existing dm, both associated with severe covid-19, more need for icu admission, and mortality.