Covid-19 continues to remain a mystery as it does not affect everybody equally. Some people with Covid-19 suffer only mild symptoms. People with comorbid conditions, Covid-19 infection means threat to their life.
A new American Diabetes Association paper, presented by researchers from Michigan Medicine, has examined the association between high blood sugar level and worse outcomes in people infected with the virus.
The paper talks about a blood sugar management tool, developed by the researchers, which has the potential to reduce a range of secondary infections in diabetic patients who are infected with Covid-19.
The tool will be effective in reducing in secondary infections, kidney issues even in those patients who are obese, suffering from borderline cases of diabetes, and get Covid-19.
“Based on preliminary observations of our patients, those with one of these pre-existing conditions are at high risk for making the virus-induced respiratory dysfunction much worse, potentially resulting in death,” says first author Roma Gianchandani, M.D., a professor of internal medicine in the Michigan Medicine division of metabolism, endocrinology and diabetes.
The paper suspects it’s the low grade, inflammatory nature of diabetes and hyperglycemia that promote the virus’ inflammatory surge, resulting in insulin resistance and severe hyperglycemia.
The paper talks about unusual immune response triggered by the high glucose level which often does not attack only the virus. Body’s healthy cells and tissue are also damaged by such immune response.
Hence, people with pre-existing conditions are more likely to suffer severe infections than the healthy people. Unlike healthy people, risk for mechanical ventilation, kidney replacement therapy are significantly higher for them.
All of these complications make blood sugar management more difficult, but our team is convinced this management is essential to prevent complications that lead to prolonged inpatient stays, or morbidity,” Gianchandani says. “A recent study has already shown there’s a correlation between well-controlled blood sugar and lower levels of inflammatory markers.”
Blood Sugar Management Tool
- The research team developed a tool to identify and manage high blood sugar in COVID-19 patients:
- It calls for moving away from continuous glucose monioring, as it is neither accurate, nor effective.
- It calls for insulin delivery every six hours, and at the same time a nurse would check in on the patient.
Some patients who were on ventilators or receiving high doses of Vitamin C would get their arterial or venous blood sugar levels checked, replacing the need for the team’s blood sugar check.
“Improving blood sugar control was important in reducing the amount of secondary infections and kidney issues this cohort of patients are susceptible to,” Gianchandani says. “
