Investigating the impact of metformin on severity of COVID‐19 in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus: Focusing on laboratory findings

BACKGROUND: In the terrifying pandemic caused by SARS‐CoV‐2, diabetic patients exhibiting more severe outcomes and mortality rate is high among them. Based on recent studies, metformin as the most prescribed drug for T2DM treatment may improve severe outcomes in diabetic patients infected with SARS‐CoV‐2. On the other hand, abnormal laboratory findings can help to differentiate between the severe and non‐severe form of COVID‐19. According to the mentioned issues, the effect of metformin on severity of COVID‐19 was examined in T2DM patients with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. METHODS: The study included 187 individuals diagnosed with COVID‐19, 104 patients were diabetic and divided into two groups according to their anti‐diabetic drugs: patients who were treated only with metformin and patients who were treated with other anti‐diabetic drugs. The other participants were non‐diabetic and diagnosed with COVID‐19. Biochemical parameters were measured by routine laboratory methods before, during and after SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. RESULTS: During infection, FBS, creatinine, ALT, AST, Ferritin and LDH were significantly lower in metformin users than non‐users (p‐value: .02, .01, .03, .04, .0009 and .01, respectively). Also, after recovery, there were statistically significant differences between metformin users and non‐users with respect to most of the study parameters, except FBS, BUN and ALP (p‐value: .51, .28 and .35, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our result suggested that metformin might be associated with better outcomes in diabetic patients infected with SARS‐CoV‐2.