Christian Dejaco

Objective The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical manifestations and outcome of COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease (iRMD) as compared with the general population. Methods This is a case–control study of patients selected from the South Tyrol public health service, Italy, with and without iRMD, affected by COVID-19. We included patients ≥18 years and with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test between 1 October 2020 and 1 March 2021. Cases were identified by linking the diagnosis of a rheumatic disease with PCR test positivity; these were then matched in a 1:1.8 (planned 1:2) ratio for age, sex, and date of COVID-19 diagnosis with people from the general population. The outcomes of primary interest were hospitalization, and severe course (intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation/extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, death). Results The study population consisted of 561 COVID-19 patients, of which 201 (mean age 60.4 years; 65.2% female) were patients with iRMD and 360 were controls from the general population (59.8 years; 64.7% female). The majority of iRMD patients (88.6%) were receiving an immunosuppressive drug at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis, and 36.3% were receiving glucocorticoids. COVID-19 related hospitalization (12.4% vs 10.6%, P = 0.49), severe course (5.0% vs 5.3%, P = 1.00), and mortality (3.5% vs 4.4%, P = 0.66) were similar between the groups. Among the hospitalized patients, mechanical ventilation was more common in iRMD patients than in controls [n = 5 (20.0%) vs n = 1 (2.6%), P = 0.035]. Conclusion Our study indicated similar rates for admission, severe course, and mortality between patients with iRMD and controls affected by COVID-19. Among the hospitalized patients, mechanical ventilation was more frequently required in the iRMD group.