Patients with abnormally high blood sugar levels are more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19, researchers in China said on Saturday.
It is the first time that scientists have been able to confirm that patients with hyperglycemia, but not diagnosed with diabetes, have an increased risk of death from COVID-19, they wrote in the journal Diabetologia.
The researchers examined the death rates of 605 COVID-19 patients at two hospitals in Wuhan, China.
According to COVID-19, having high blood pressure is “independently associated” with an increased risk of death and complications from COVID-19.
The study builds on previous research on diabetic patients.
One in 10 COVID-19 diabetes patients died in French hospitals, a much higher proportion than that of patients without the condition, according to a May study in the same journal.
Exactly why high blood sugar levels increase COVID-19 death rates is still unknown.
The authors of the Friday study suggested that blood clotting, weakening of the lining of blood vessels, and cytokine storm syndrome, an overreaction of the immune system, could play a role.
The report authors urged hospitals to screen all COVID-19 patients for glucose levels, rather than just those with known diabetes.
The study, which looked at hospitalized patients admitted in January and February, had some limitations, experts not involved in the research said.
“This is a good report, but it is totally in line with expectations,” said Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, who was not one of the study’s authors.
“What the authors cannot confirm is whether differential targeting of blood sugar levels in those admitted leads to differences in results.”
More research involving randomized controlled trials is needed, said Bernard Khoo, professor of endocrinology at University College London.
© Agence France-Presse
