Managing patients with endocrine dysfunction during COVID-19: Review of literatures

Patro PM, Rao KVJ

Pdf Page Numbers :- 90-98

Mohan Patro P^1,*, Janardana Rao KV¹

¹Department of Surgery, GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, GITAM Deemed to be University, Visakhapatnam, AP, India

*Corresponding author: Dr. Mohan Patro, Professor & HOD, Department of Surgery, GITAM Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (GIMSR), GITAM Deemed to be University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Mobile: 9441466681; Email: drmohanpatro@gmail.com

Received 14 August 2020; Revised 27 October 2020; Accepted 6 November 2020; Published 14 November 2020

Citation: Patro PM, Rao KVJ. Managing patients with endocrine dysfunction during COVID-19: Review of literatures. J Med Sci Res. 2020; 8(S1):90-98. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17727/JMSR.2020/8S1-11

Copyright: © 2020 Patro PM et al. Published by KIMS Foundation and Research Center. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is labeled as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 12th March 2020, is sweeping across the world. There has been documented evidence from China that those patients who have endocrinological disorders face additional risks from COVID-19. Healthcare professionals consider people with diabetes are at higher risk of severe illness. As such people with diabetes are not more likely to get COVID-19 than the general population, but they experience severe symptoms, complications and worse outcome even death, once infected. Hence specific measures are advised for the diabetic patients. The same goes for people with autoimmune conditions that lead to adrenal insufficiency. There may be primary (Addison’s disease), secondary or tertiary adrenal insufficiency in some patients. They regulate the blood pressure, the immune response and body’s stress response. However, nearly 5% of the population takes long-term steroids for inflammatory conditions like bronchial asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases etc.; out of which many would have some degree of insufficient adrenal response in a crisis. As it relates to COVID-19, any such patient who has been on long term corticosteroid therapy; with a dry continuous cough, breathing difficulty and fever should immediately double their daily oral steroid dose and continue this regimen until the fever has subsided. It is recommended for people with adrenal insufficiency. Apart from that, they should seek immediate medical help to avoid complications.

Keywords: COVID-19; diabetes; endocrinological disorders; SARS-CoV-2