Published online Jul 15, 2022. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v13.i7.543
Peer-review started: December 8, 2021
First decision: April 18, 2022
Revised: April 29, 2022
Accepted: June 13, 2022
Article in press: June 13, 2022
Published online: July 15, 2022
Processing time: 214 Days and 14.9 Hours
Diabetes is a risk factor for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which results in increased severity and mortality but has no relationship with COVID-19 reinfection. No study has reported the relationship between COVID-19 reinfection and blood levels of fructosamine (FMN). The present study for the first time reported this relationship.
We mainly investigate the relationship between blood levels of FMN and COVID-19 reinfection.
We found that FMN levels may influence the prognosis of patients infected with COVID-19, which highlight that the hospitalization patients with elevated levels of FMN should be cautiously monitored at post discharge.
A total of 146 inpatients from the designated isolation hospital for COVID-19 patients, who were satisfied based on the diagnostic criteria and treatment protocol of COVID-19 (Fifth edition). The study cohort was divided into two groups based on FMN levels, elevated FMN was defined as levels higher than its upper tertile value, with the average follow-up period being one year. Cox regression was used to determine the hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals for the positive reinfection across the tertiles of FMN levels. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to determine the cumulative survival rate in the patients with higher than the top tertiles of FMN levels compared with those with non-elevated levels, tested using log-rank.
We found that patients with elevated FMN levels were older than the non-elevated FMN group. Elevated FMN levels were positively associated with reinfection rate as well as HR for reinfection, while the cumulative disease-free survival rate was lower for patients in the elevated FMN group. These results demonstrate that FMN levels may influence the prognosis of patients infected with COVID-19.
Elevated levels of FMN are independently associated with COVID-19 reinfection, which highlight that the COVID-19 patients with elevated levels of FMN should be followed up closely to monitor reinfection.
Additional multicenter, hemoglobin A1c data available studies using larger patient cohorts should be performed to validate our findings.