Author(s): Muzamil Latief, Obeid Shafi, Zhahid Hassan, Farhat Abbas
Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) has been observed to cause serious complications and higher mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Conversely, new-onset diabetes and metabolic complications of pre-existing diabetes (including DKA and hyperosmolarity) have also been seen in patients with COVID-19. Case Presentation: We report a series of 7 patients with a mean age of 30.71+/-1.38 years. Our series included 2 female patients. None of our patients had an underlying known comorbidity. All patients were RT PCR positive for SARS-Cov2. All patients had lymphopenia at presentation and raised inflammatory markers. All patients received IV steroids (methylprednisolone) for 5 days and subsequently oral. All patients improved with no major complication except one patient developed hyperglycemia on day 3 of the institution of steroids. His Hba1c was suggestive of prediabetic status (6.1%). No other treatment-related complication was observed. Conclusion: We postulate that the combination of SARS-CoV2 infection and steroids impairs the glucose metabolism resulting in hyperglycemia only in patients who have underlying risk factors for the same.