Ann Rheum Dis: Clinical characteristics of COVID-19 infection in patients with autoimmune diseases

The numberof coVID-19infections in the general population is increasingThe purpose of this study is to further assess the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 infection in patients with systemic autosexualimmunedisease (AIDs)study included all patients diagnosed with COVID-19 systemic AIDs at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan from January 29 to March 8, 2020Retrospective collection and analysis of epidemiological data on 1,255 hospitalized patients and other clinical characteristics of systemic AIDs patients were analyzedFollow-up until 16 April 20201255 cases of COVID-19 patients, the median age was 64.0 years, male 53.1%More than half of patients (63.0%) had chronic comorbiditiesThe proportion of elderly, male and comorbidity patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is significantly higher than in general wards (p 0.001)17 (0.61%) systemic AIDs were further screened and analyzed from 2804 inpatientsThe median age is 64.0 years, with 82.4 per cent of womenAll the patients lived in Wuhan and two cases of family aggregation were detectedOne patient (5.9%) was admitted to the ICU and 1 died Ten (62.5%) of the 16 patients changed or stopped anti-AIDs treatment during hospitalization, and 5 of them felt the disease worsen after isolation older men with chronic comorbidities are more likely to develop severe COVID-19 The lower rate of COVID-19 infection in patients with systemic AIDs requires more high-quality human clinical trials and in-depth mechanism studies It is important to note that discontinuation of anti-AIDs treatment during hospitalization may lead to the onset of the disease