Cases of type 1 diabetes among children in a small UK study almost doubled during the height of the British Covid-19 epidemic, suggesting a possible link between the two diseases that need more research, scientists said on Tuesday.
While the study is only based on a handful of cases, it is the first to link Covid-19 and new-type type 1 diabetes in children, and doctors should be on the lookout, Imperial College researchers said in a statement. London.
“Our analysis shows that during the peak of the pandemic, the number of new cases of type 1 diabetes in children was unusually high in two of the hospitals (we are studying) compared to previous years,” said Karen Logan, who co-led the study.
“When we further investigated, some of these children had active coronavirus or were previously exposed to the virus.”
Logan said previous reports from China and Italy had noted that children were diagnosed in hospitals with new-type type 1 diabetes during the pandemic.
This study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, analyzed data from 30 children in London hospitals diagnosed with new type 1 in the first peak of the pandemic – almost double the cases that occurred during this period in previous years. seen.
Twenty-one of the children were tested for Covid-19 or had antibody tests to see if they were exposed to the virus – and five tested positive for new coronavirus infection.
Type 1 diabetes causes cells that produce insulin in the pancreas to be destroyed, and prevents the body from producing enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. The Imperial team said one possible explanation could be that the spike protein of the new coronavirus would attack insulin-making cells in the pancreas.
“More research is needed to determine if there is a definitive switch, … but in the meantime, we hope clinicians will be aware of this,” Logan said.
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