Association of COVID-19, Diabetes in Mucormycosis Patient- A Hospital-Based Study

Mucormycosis (previously called zygomycosis) is a serious but rare fungal infection caused by a group of moulds called mucormycetes.These moulds live throughout the environment.Mucormycosis mainly affects people who have health problems or take medicines that lower the body's ability to fight germs and sickness.This research aimed to study the association of COVID, diabetes and mucormycosis in a population reporting to Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai in a period from June 2019 to June 2023.The data of patients reporting to Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals was reviewed and patients with mucormycosis were selected for the study.It included parameters like age, gender, Coronavirus history and systemic disease.Frequency test was used to detect the significance between age, gender, COVID-19 history and systemic condition.Chi-square tests were carried out using age, and gender as independent variables and COVID-19 history, and systemic condition as dependent variables.Statistical analysis was done by Pearson's chi-square test.P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.In this study, we observed that the most common age group diagnosed with mucormycosis was found to be 41-60 years of age (56%) and males were more commonly affected (88%).More than 50% of patients gave a history of COVID-19 and 50% were diabetic.The most common intraoral presentation was found to be palatal swelling (19%), and most of the patients had unilateral swelling.When associating swelling with different age groups, unilateral swelling was found to be more in young adults (56%) while bilateral swelling was profound in older people.The chi-square value was found to be significant (0.035).In this study, we observed that the most common age group diagnosed with mucormycosis was found to be 41-60 years of age and males were more commonly affected.The majority of them had a history of COVID-19 and were diabetic.The most common intraoral presentation was found to be palatal swelling, and most of the patients had unilateral swelling.Collectively, these findings suggest a familiar connection between mucormycosis, COVID-19 and diabetes.