Ann Rheum Dis: Prevalence of COVID-19 in patients with chronic inflammatory and autoimmune rheumatism

The risk or benefit of COVID-19 susceptibility and immunosuppressive therapy in patients with rheumatism is not yet knownThe researchers conducted a retrospective study of patients in the rheumatology department at seven Spanish hospitalsThe latest database of patients with rheumatism patients who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 by hospital PCR was matched with the same reference populationThe ratio of COVID-19 was compared with PCR plus confirmed in each groupThe prevalence of PCR-COVID-19 in hospitals with chronic inflammatory diseases was 1.32 times higher than in the reference population (0.76% vs 0.58%)The prevalence of PCR-COVID-19 increased significantly in patients with systemic autoimmune or immunomediated disease (AI/IMID), but no increase in COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) or systemic lupusIn some but not all diagnostic groups, COVID-19 cases are older than the reference populationThe prevalence of COVid-19 increased in Patients with IA who received targeted synthetic or biological disease-improving anti-rheumatoid drugs (DMARDs) and did not increase in IA patients receiving conventional lysined DMARDs, despite similar age distributionsThe risk of AI/IMID patients being diagnosed with COVID-19 in hospital stakes are differentThe interaction of age, treatment and disease-specific factors has an impact on the risk of diseaseThese data provide a basis for improved preventive recommendations for patients with rheumatism and for the analysis of specific factors related to COVID-19 susceptibility