New-onset Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus with Diabetic Ketoacidosis and Pancreatitis in a Patient with COVID-19

Abstract

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) had struck the world with health and economic catastrophes and recently with unusual autoimmune presentations, including new-onset Type 1 Diabetes.Herein we present a 17-year-old male patient who presented to the outptient clinic with fever, palpitation, and cough of four-week duration; he was referred to the emergency room and was found to have DKA. CT of the chest showed ground-glass opacities suggestive of COVID-19 pneumonia, and abdominal cuts showed dilated intrahepatic biliary radicles with pancreatic loculations suggestive of pancreatitis. The patient was admitted to the ICU, started on intravenous fluids and insulin infusion then COVID-19 PCR returned positive. We hypothesize that SARS-CoV-2 has a vital role in eliciting an autoimmune response triggering type 1 diabetes, and further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis. SARS-CoV-2 may cause pancreatitis, and the first presentation could be high blood sugar or DKA.

Keywords

• New-onset
• Type 1 diabetes mellitus
• Diabetic ketoacidosis
• Pancreatitis
• COVID-19
• DKA