@article{10902/27933,
year = {2022},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10902/27933},
abstract = {Background: COVID-19 may present different degrees of severity. Viral infections in patients with rheumatic inflammatory diseases (R-IMID) trend to present more severe disease. However, data comparing the severity of the disease between R-IMID and the general population are scarce.

Objectives: To compare predisposing factors, clinical, serological features, and severity of COVID-19 infection in patients with and without R-IMID.

Methods: Case-control study in a single University Hospital. We included all consecutive patients with a diagnosis of an R-IMID and COVID-19 infection up to March 31st, 2021. This cohort was compared to patients without R-IMID and not receiving immunosuppressive therapy, matched for sex and age (±5 years). Confirmed infection was defined if a patient had a positive nasopharyngeal swab for SARS-CoV-2. Severity was divided into mild, moderate, severe and critical according to the United States National Institute of Health (NIH) guidelines.

Results: We included 274 R-IMID patients (185 women/89 men), mean age 59.1 ± 18 years. More frequent R-IMID were: Rheumatoid arthritis (28.8%), Psoriatic Arthritis (20.1%), axial Spondyloarthritis (12.4%), Polymyalgia Rheumatica (8%) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (8%). Hypertension and dyslipidemia were more frequent in patients with R-IMID. Although most of the cases were mild, critical cases and deaths were more frequent in R-IMID. When adjusted by comorbidities, no statistical differences were observed.

Conclusion: R-IMID have a very similar clinical presentation when compared to the general population. There is a trend to an increased severity of the disease in patients with R-IMID.},
organization = {Acknowledgments: We thank all the staff, physicians, nurses, and assistants of Rheumatology Unit of University Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla for their interest and collaboration during all these years.},
publisher = {Frontiers Media S.A.},
publisher = {Frontiers in Medicine Volume 9, 2022},
title = {Coronavirus disease 2019 in patients with rheumatic immune-mediated diseases in a single university hospital, matched case-control study and literature review},
author = {Martínez-López, David and Ferraz-Amaro, Iván and Prieto Peña, Diana and Sánchez Bilbao, Lara and Herrero-Morant, Alba and Álvarez-Reguera, Carmen and Benavides-Villanueva, Fabricio and Corrales-Selaya, Cristina and Trigueros-Vázquez, Martín and González-Gay Mantecón, Miguel Ángel and Blanco Alonso, Ricardo},
}