| dc.description.abstract | Background and aims: Diabetes mellitus is highly prevalent among critical cases of coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19) with poor outcomes. This study aimed to describe the clinical characteristics and
outcomes of COVID-19 patients with diabetes, admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the southern
region of Bangladesh.
Methods: Epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, treatments, complications, and clinical outcomes data
were extracted from electronic medical records of 168 COVID-19 patients admitted into ICU of two
COVID-19 dedicated hospitals of Chattogram, Bangladesh and compared between diabetes (n 1⁄4 88) and
non-diabetes (n 1⁄4 80) groups.
Results: The prevalence of diabetes was high among 51e70 years old patients. All the diabetic patients
had at least one other comorbidity, with a significantly higher incidence of hypertension (53.4% vs 27.5%,
P < 0.05). Prevalence of male patients (74/88; 84.1%) was slightly higher among diabetic patients than the
non-diabetic patients (60/80; 75%). Even though not significant, Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed
that COVID-19 patients with diabetes had a shorter overall survival time than those without diabetes. In
subgroup analysis, diabetic patients were classified into insulin-requiring and non-insulin-requiring
groups based on their requirement of insulin during the stay in ICU. COVID-19 infected diabetic pa-
tients requiring insulin have high risk of disease progression and shorter survival time than the non-
insulin required group.
Conclusions: Diabetes is an independent risk factor for the poor prognosis of COVID-19. More attention
should be paid to the prevention and prompt treatment of diabetic patients, to maintain good glycaemic
control especially those who require insulin therapy. | en_US |
