German scientists, writing in the latest issue of the journal Diabetologia, say that their retrospective study of 8.8 million patients found that infection with the new coronavirus increased the risk of developing type II diabetes.
Previous studies have shown that the human pancreas may also be a target of the new coronavirus. Infection with neo-coronavirus reduces insulin secreting granules in the body’s beta cells, and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion is impaired. In addition, some infected patients may develop insulin intolerance and elevated blood glucose levels despite having no history of diabetes. Moreover, infection with neocoronavirus may lead to a strong release of pro-inflammatory signaling substances (cytokines) that impair the effectiveness of insulin.
However, it is so far unclear whether these metabolic changes are temporary or whether infection with the neo-coronavirus increases the risk of developing diabetes in the long term. To investigate this question, researchers from the German Diabetes Center (DDZ), the German Diabetes Research Center and Ekunwei conducted a retrospective cohort study.
In the latest study, they set up a panel of 1,171 physicians to follow 8.8 million patients from March 2020 to January 2021. Wolfgang Rattmann, first author of the latest study and head of the DDZ Epidemiology Study Group, said, “Our aim was to investigate the incidence of diabetes after infection with the new coronavirus.”
The researchers chose patients with acute upper respiratory infection (AURI), an infection also often caused by viruses, as a control group.
During the study period, a total of 35,865 people were diagnosed with neo-coronavirus infection. According to the researchers, “Our analysis showed that patients with neocoronavirus were more likely to develop type II diabetes than patients with AURI: 15.8 per 1,000 with neocoronavirus compared with 12.3 per 1,000 with AURI, 28 percent higher.
Although the vast majority of patients with mild cases of AURI are unlikely to develop type II diabetes, the authors of the paper recommend that people recovering from AURI be alert for warning signs of diabetes such as fatigue, frequent urination and thirst, and seek immediate treatment.
