Usefulness of serological antibodies assays to better evaluate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in youths with type 1 diabetes

Introduction: In youths with type 1 diabetes (T1D), diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at onset increased during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. In adults, diabetes was identified as risk factor for severe symptoms and hospitalization with the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in children and adolescents with T1D Methods: SARS-CoV-2 infection was defined according to selfreported SARS-CoV-2 nasal swab PCR results (n=210) during the pandemic and seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (n=85) from Jan to Jun-21. SARS-CoV-2 IgG were assessed using a chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA). Clinical characteristics and glycemic control data were collected before (T0) and 3-months after (T1) infection Results: SARS-CoV-2 infection was detected in 39 patients [24 males; median age 13.5 yrs (4.74-19.8); T1D duration 5.49 yrs (0.27-12.6)]: 26 (66.6%) based on positive nasal swab PCR and 13 (33.4%) on positive SARS-CoV-2 IgG. Patients detected by CLIA were asymptomatic. Four patients detected by nasal swab PCR were asymptomatic (15.4%), while the others reported ≥1 symptoms lasting a median of 5 days: fever (46.1%), headache (28.2%), anosmia and/or ageusia (25.6%), nasal congestion (15.4%), fatigue/myalgia (10.2%). Dry cough, pharyngeal erythema, nausea/vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, arthralgia were reported by 2.56%. Glycemic control was not impaired from T0 to T1 (median HbA1c 58.5 vs 57.4 mmol/mol; TIR 58.5 vs 56.5%). Hospitalization and DKA were not recorded Conclusions: Using seroprevalence of antibodies we found an increased prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection that had no impact on glycemic control and acute complications. Asymptomatic subjects were 43%, while fever, headache, anosmia/ageusia were the most common clinical characteristics. Our data suggest that serological assay is useful to diagnosing previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and could be used to reconstruct the disease prevalence.