• Dalifer D Freites Nuñez, Leticia Leon, Arkaitz Mucientes, Luis Rodriguez-Rodriguez, Judit Font Urgelles, Alfredo Madrid García, Jose I Colomer, Juan A Jover, Benjamín Fernandez-Gutierrez, and Lydia Abasolo.
• Rheumatology Department and IDISSC, La Fundacion para la Investigacion Biomedica del Hospital Clinico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
• Ann. Rheum. Dis. 2020 Nov 1; 79 (11): 1393-1399.

ObjectivesTo describe patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIRD) who had COVID-19 disease; to compare patients who required hospital admission with those who did not and assess risk factors for hospital admission related to COVID-19.MethodsAn observational longitudinal study was conducted during the pandemic peak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (1 March 2020 to 24 April). All patients attended at the rheumatology outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital in Madrid, Spain with a medical diagnosis of AIRD and with symptomatic COVID-19 were included. The main outcome was hospital admission related to COVID-19. The covariates were sociodemographic, clinical and treatments. We ran a multivariable logistic regression model to assess risk factors for the hospital admission.ResultsThe study population included 123 patients with AIRD and COVID-19. Of these, 54 patients required hospital admission related to COVID-19. The mean age on admission was 69.7 (15.7) years, and the median time from onset of symptoms to hospital admission was 5 (3-10) days. The median length of stay was 9 (6-14) days. A total of 12 patients died (22%) during admission. Compared with outpatients, the factors independently associated with hospital admission were older age (OR: 1.08; p=0.00) and autoimmune systemic condition (vs chronic inflammatory arthritis) (OR: 3.55; p=0.01). No statistically significant findings for exposure to disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs were found in the final model.ConclusionOur results suggest that age and having a systemic autoimmune condition increased the risk of hospital admission, whereas disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs were not associated with hospital admission.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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