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Article Type

Original Study

Subject Area

Rheumatology and Rehabilitation

Abstract

Objective : Patients who suffer from immune-mediated or chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases show a varying likelihood of getting hospital-diagnosed COVID-19. This study helps to search the individual risk factors involved in COVID-19 susceptibility and to provide a basis to develop a better preventive recommendation to rheumatic patients. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis with patients being monitored and followed up in Mataria Teaching Hospital`s rheumatology department. We compared newly updated datasets of adult rheumatology patients with positive PCR tests for COVID-19 that is conducted in the hospital and identified as having chronic inflammatory arthritis (IA), autoimmune or immune-mediated disease (AI/IMID) to the same reference populations. Furthermore, we examined PCR+ verified COVID-19 rates also among groups. Between April and May 2020, after the incidence peak of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV- 2) infection had been attained, patients’ medical record IDs were checked and reviewed. Results: The study included a hundred and eighty patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases (mean age, 48.74 ± 13.25), and 88.5% were female. Compared to the reference population, patients with immune-mediated rheumatic diseases had a reduced prevalence of hospital PCR+COVID-19 (33.9% vs 66.1%). Individuals with SPA did not exhibit a substantial rise in prevalence, in contrast to those with rheumatoid arthritis who displayed a significantly higher prevalence. In several diagnostic groupings, but not all, COVID-19 individuals were found to be older than those from the general population. While having a similar age distribution, patients with IA who were on biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) had a lower prevalence than those on conventional-synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs). Conclusion: The risk of receiving a COVID-19 hospital diagnosis varies among patients with autoimmune rheumatic illnesses. Age, medications, and factors connected to diseases all appear to interact and have an impact. These findings serve as a foundation for strengthening preventive recommendations to rheumatic patients and for identifying the precise variables that influence COVID-19 susceptibility.

IRB Number

HM000131

Keywords

Rheumatic diseases, Inflammatory Arthritis, Autoimmune diseases, SARSCoV- 2, COVID-19

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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