Endocrine Abstracts

Aim: To evaluate the efficiency of glucocorticosteroids (GCS) in combination with biological therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D).

Materials and methods: A retrospective study of hospitalized patients with a PCR-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 with T2D was conducted (n=179). Patients received standard therapy, including biological preparations. The first group consisted of participants who received GCS (n=46), the second group – patients without GCS (n=133). The groups are comparable by sex, age, in severity, of the degree of lung damage according to computed tomography (CT), of the presence of concomitant diseases.

Results: The number of patients transferred to the intensive care unit in the first group was 30.8%, in the second – 19.6% (P=0.142), requiring a mechanical ventilation – 20.3% and 13.0%, respectively (P=0.378). The proportion of deaths in the first group was 17.4% and in the second – 16.5% (P=1.0), the duration of hospital stay was 13 and 11 days, respectively (P=0.001). The median FPG on 7^th day in the first group was 8.3 mmol/l, in the second – 7.6 mmol/l (P=0.858). The improvement according to CT data in the first group was 10.9%, in the second – 16.5% (P=0.475), the weighting was 21.7% and 24.8%, respectively (P=0.674). The level of C-reactive protein in the first group on the 7th day decreased by 52.3 mg/l and in the second by 35.7 mg/l (P=0.110), lactate dehydrogenase increased by 44.7 U/l in the first group and decreased by 18.9 U/l in the second (P=0.743), the content of fibrinogen decreased by 1.7 and 2.5 g/l, respectively (P=0.231), the level of D-dimer didn’t change (P=0.996).

Conclusions: The addition of GCS to biological therapy didn’t affect the outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with T2D, didn’t contribute to a more effective relief of the inflammatory syndrome and a decrease in the degree of lung tissue damage, but prolonged the duration of hospitalization.