A moderately higher time-in-range threshold improves the prognosis of type 2 diabetes patients complicated with COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE

After fully lifting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic control measures in mainland China in 12/2022, the incidence of COVID-19 has increased markedly, making it difficult to meet the general time-in-range (TIR) requirement. We investigated a more clinically practical TIR threshold and examined its association with the prognosis of COVID-19 patients with type 2 diabetes(T2D).

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

63 T2D patients complicated with COVID-19 were evaluated. Patients were divided into favorable outcome group and adverse outcome group according to whether achieving composite endpoint (a >20-day length of stay, intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation use, or death). TIR, the time-below-range (TBR) and the time-above-range (TAR) were calculated from intermittently scanned continuous glucose monitoring. Logistic regression analysis and other statistical methods were used to analyze the correlation between glucose variability and prognosis to establish the appropriate reference range of TIR.

RESULTS

TIR with thresholds of 80 to 190 mg/dL was significantly associated with favorable outcomes. An increase of 1% in TIR is connected with a reduction of 3.70% in the risk of adverse outcomes. The Youden index was highest when the TIR was 54.73%, and the sensitivity and specificity were 58.30% and 77.80%, respectively. After accounting for confounding variables, our analysis revealed that threshold target ranges (TARs) ranging from 200 mg/dL to 230 mg/dL significantly augmented the likelihood of adverse outcomes.

CONCLUSION

The TIR threshold of 80 to 190 mg/dL has a comparatively high predictive value of the prognosis of COVID-19. TIR >54.73% was associated with a decreased risk of adverse outcomes. These findings provide clinically critical insights into possible avenues to improve outcomes for COVID-19 patients with T2D.