Prevalence of COVID-19 in Different Types of Collagen Vascular Diseases and its Relationship with Drugs Used in these Patients

OBJECTIVES: The outcome of COVID-19 disease in collagen vascular disease and its comparison with other infected people in the community, are not fully understood yet.In this study, we examined whether the prevalence and severity of COVID-19 in these patients is higher than the general population or not? METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed between August and December 2020 on collagen vascular patients referred to the rheumatology clinic of Firouzgar Hospital. Patients were evaluated for a history of COVID-19. The prevalence of the and its relationship with age, sex, type of disease, medications, blood. The history of influenza vaccine was also evaluated in these patients. RESULTS: Among the total of 748 patients, 574 (76.6%) subjects were women, and 174 (23.3%) subjects were men. The mean age of the patients was 47.46 ± 13.56 years old. The prevalence of COVID-19 was 8.0% and its highest prevalence was related to rheumatoid arthritis (36.7%) and the lowest one was for vasculitis (1.7%). Notably, 12.5% of the patients who did not suffer from COVID-19, were vaccinated against influenza (p-value = 0.54). In this regard, a significant relationship was found between COVID-19 prevalence and previous existence of interstitial lung disease (p -value = 0.017). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of COVID-19 in collagen vascular patients was not higher than the general population. There was also no significant relationship between the prevalence of COVID-19 and its severity and collagen vascular patient’s blood group, the type of their disease and drug. More studies are required on the effect of DMARD drugs on the prevalence and severity of COVID-19 disease in collagen patients. Better results could be obtained if this study is done with a larger sample size.