Semin Arthritis Rheu: Incidence of COVID-19 in rheumatologists treated with tDMARDs

The study was designed to investigate the incidence of neo-coronavirus COVID-19 in adult and child rheumatic patients treated with targeted biologics and synthetic diseases to improve anti-rheumatic agents (tDMARDs) and to explore the possible effects of these treatments on the clinical expression of COVID-19a cross-sectional study, including telephone surveys and electronic medical records reviews, was included in all adult and childhood patients treated with tDMARDs at a large rheumatology specialist centre in Barcelona, SpainGet demographic, disease activity, COVID-19-related symptoms and exposure history data from the 2020 pandemicThe cumulative incidence of confirmed cases (PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2) was compared with population estimates from the same urban area as the Government COVID-19 Health DatabaseSuspected cases are defined according to WHO standards and are compared to cases withno compatibility symptomsincluded 959 cases of rheumatic patients treated with tDMARDsEleven confirmed SARS-CoV-2-positive cases were identified in the adult queue, while no confirmed positive cases were confirmed in the child queueThe coVID-19 incidence in the cohorts of rheumatic patients is very similar to that of the general population, with a incidence of 0.48% (95% CI 0.09-8.65%) and ,0.58% (95% CI 5.62-5.99%), respectivelyThe study found a significant difference in the proportion of suspected and non-suspected cases of tDMARDs (p.0.002)compared to the general population, adults and children with rheumatic disease treated with tDMARDs did not have an increased risk of COVID-19 infection or more severe disease outcomes