Predictors of Mortality Among COVID-19 Patients With or Without Comorbid Diabetes Mellitus

Late in 2019, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in China, and the disease caused a pandemic state worldwide. Up to now, many studies have investigated the impact of comorbid diseases, especially diabetes mellitus, on COVID-19 outcomes. In this study, we aimed to assess the para-clinic characteristics of COVID-19 patients with or without diabetes mellitus to identify factors indicative of poor prognoses. In this prospective study, 153 in-patients with COVID-19 were followed up from 1 March to 19 April. Paraclinical information of these patients was gathered from their medical records. Afterward, the association between these factors among both diabetic and non-diabetic patients was assessed in the correlation analyses. Discharge and expiration of 77.1% and 22.9% of the study participants resulted in a 1063 person-day follow-up for patients who were discharged healthily and 384 person-day follow-ups for expired patients. 41.8% of the participants had diabetes mellitus. Lymphocytopenia and Neutrolhilia prevalences increased during hospitalization; comparing with their initial prevalences. Thirty-seven patients got acute respiratory distress syndrome; of those, 35 died. The mean of the initial C reactive protein level was 42.49, and serum creatinine of 1.39. The study showed that higher initial neutrophil count, increasing neutrophil count more than 15000 and decreasing lymphocyte count below 1000 during hospitalization; development of acute respiratory distress syndrome and being intubated; initial C reactive protein and serum creatinine level were associated with higher mortality rates in COVID-19 victims.