High blood sugar causes complications in elderly Covid-19 patients

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 21 - Glycemic decompensation, a condition in which blood glucose values ​​are excessively high, is responsible for complications in elderly patients with Covid-19. Campanian research highlights the effects of early glycemic control on the evolution of Coronavirus disease and opens new therapeutic perspectives aimed at reducing mortality. The study, published in Diabetes Care, is the result of an analysis of 59 patients admitted to the Infectious Diseases wards of the Sant'Anna hospital in Caserta and the Luigi Vanvitelli University of Campania. The research team made up of internists, infectious disease specialists and biologists, and coordinated by Raffaele Marfella, full professor of Internal Medicine at the Vanvitelli University, highlighted that high blood sugar levels, higher than 140 mg / dl at the time of hospitalization, they were associated with an increased risk of mortality.
    The association between diabetes and mortality risk in Covid-19 patients, the study finds, was widely documented. On the other hand, the impact of glycemic control on the intensity of treatment required and mortality in patients with Covid-19 was less clear. Research has shown that the blood of hyperglycemic patients had high levels of inflammation and factors that favored clotting. Hence the hypothesis that glycemic decompensation may worsen COVID-19 disease causing serious alterations of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
    "We observed - explains Marfella - that early normalization of glucose, by insulin, is associated with a reduction in inflammation, clotting and mortality. Therefore, greater attention to blood glucose levels could significantly improve the survival of patients suffering from COVID-19". (HANDLE)