Frequency, characteristics and outcome of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection in Iranian patients with rheumatic diseases

AIM OF THE WORK: To investigate the frequency, clinical characteristics and outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in rheumatic diseases patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One thousand patients with rheumatic diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), axial spondyloarthritis (SpA), systemic sclerosis (SSc), Sjögren’s syndrome (SS), Behçets disease (BD), vasculitis, idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM), relapsing polychondritis, sarcoidosis and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) were studied. The following data were collected: age, sex, disease diagnosis, rheumatic disease medication. Rheumatic diseases patients were divided into two groups of infected and non-infected patients with COVID-19 and collected data were compared. RESULTS: The 1000 patients mean age was 43.4 ± 13 years and 84.1% were females. The main diagnosis was RA (37.1%), followed by SLE (23.8%), SpA (13.4%), SSc (12.4%), vasculitis, BD and rhupus in 2.4%, 2.3% and 2.2% respectively, SS and SSc in 0.7% each. Most patients were taking glucocorticoids (78.4%). A large majority of patients were taking at least one of the cDMARDs. 16.1% were taking biologic therapy. 221 rheumatic diseases patients with COVID-19 were identified. Of these, 38 patients (17.2%) were hospitalized and 9 patients (4.1%) died. No significant difference was observed for compared variables in patients with and without COVID-19 except for prednisolone >20 mg/d (0.64% vs 2.26%; p = 0.048). CONCLUSION: Most rheumatic diseases do not seem to be a risk factor for developing COVID-19 infection and despite immunosuppressive therapies, there is no poorer outcome. Only, patients using prednisolone >20 mg/d are at higher risk of developing COVID-19 infection.