Introduction: Improvement of critically ill patients Covid 19 positive placed on glucocorticoids may suggest impairment of the adrenal function. Our objective was to evaluate baseline serum cortisol in covid+ patients.Methods: This was a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study conducted in a population of patients infected with 2019-nCoV in Cameroon. Patients receiving corticosteroids irrespective of the route of administration within 3 months prior to recruitment and those with any hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis disease were excluded. We reviewed the medical records of patients to collect socio-demographic and clinical data. Patients were then sampled at 8 am for serum cortisol assay by the competitive ELISA method. Statistical analyses were performed using the Student's test to compare means. The significance level was set at p<0.05. Results: We included 80 covid+ patients, predominantly males (45, 56.3%) with a mean age of 43±13 years. The co-morbidities found were hypertension (9, 11.3%), diabetes mellitus (7, 8.8%), cardiovascular disease (8, 10%) and obesity (4, 5%). The most common symptoms were asthenia (44, 55%), fever (36, 45%) and respiratory symptoms (75, 93.7%). The non-severe form was the most common (70, 87.5%). Only 12.5% (10) of patients received oxygen therapy within our study. The mean baseline serum cortisol in the series was 279.55 nmol/l±128.68 (min 96.1332 nmol/l; max 665.0521 nmol/l). Sixty-nine patients (86.3%) had baseline cortisol ≤413.79nmol/l, suggesting an insufficient response to stress. No statistically significant association was found between serum cortisol and disease severity.Conclusion: The absence of a marked rise of cortisol during COVID-19 suggests possible involvement of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in this infection.

Background: We aimed to evaluate the short-term metabolic effects of a GLP-1a, (liraglutide) versus a DPP-4i, (vildagliptin) in a group of sub-Saharan type 2 diabetes patients. Methods: We conducted a randomized controlled single blinded clinical trial in 14 uncontrolled type 2 diabetes patients (HbA1c ≥ 53 mmol/mol) with mean duration of diabetes of 8 [1 -12] years and median age of 57 [49 -61] years. Baseline treatment consisted of metformin in monotherapy or metformin plus sulfonylureas. Participants were randomly allocated to 2 groups of add-on 1.2 mg/day subcutaneous liraglutide in group 1 or 100 mg/day of oral vildagliptin in group 2 for 2 weeks. In all participants, insulin secretion in response to mixed meal tolerance test, insulin sensitivity by 80 mU/m 2 /min hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, body composition, and lipid profile were measured before and after intervention. Results: At the end of intervention, insulin sensitivity remained unchanged both with liraglutide from 6.