Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics of Diabetic COVID-19 Patients with High Risk of Mortality: A Single-Center Study from Central India

Background: Diabetes is a common comorbidity and risk factor of mortality in COVID-19 in India but data on characteristics of diabetic COVID-19 is scarce. Objectives: We aimed to study clinical and laboratory characteristics, and mortality of diabetic COVID-19 patients. Methods: This study included 235 COVID-19 patients presenting to our Center, from February, 2021 to May 2022. The demographics, clinical features, laboratory results were collected from the hospital records. Results: Out of 235 eligible COVID-19 patients, 107 (45.5%) were diabetic and 128 (54.5%) were non-diabetic. The diabetics compared to non-diabetics had higher frequency of hypertension (62.6% vs 34.4%; p<0.001), cardiovascular disease (8.4% vs 1.5%; p<0.05) and mortality (27.1% vs 13%; p<0.001). D-dimer (8.9+3.1 vs 1.2+ 5.1; p<0.01), CRP (269.2+136.0 vs 49.8 + 63.4; p<0.001), neutrophils (10.6 vs 7.2; <0.001], HbA1c (8.3 + 1.6 vs 5.2± 0.5%; p<0.05) and Troponin-T (1.8+17.6 vs 0.02 +1.2; <0.05) were higher while AST (48.9+79.6 vs 77.0+88.4; p<0.01) and lymphocytes (0.9 vs 1.3); <0.01) were lower in diabetics than non-diabetics. Mortlaity in diabetics was associated with hypertension (p<0.01), cardiovascular disease (p<0.001) and elevated D-dimer (p<0.0001) and neutrophils (p<0.05) but lower lymphocyte counts (p<0.001). Conclusion: The diabetic COVID-19 patients had higher mortality associated with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, elevated D-dimer, neutrophilic leukocytosis and lymphocytopenia.