Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec 3;12(23):23427-23435.
doi: 10.18632/aging.202193. Epub 2020 Dec 3.

Evolution of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases

Rongrong Pang  1   2 , Jun Zhao  1   3 , Zhenhua Gan  4   5 , Zhiliang Hu  6   7 , Xiang Xue  8 , Yanjun Wu  9   10 , Qinghua Qiao  11   12 , Aifang Zhong  12   13 , Xinyi Xia  1   5   12 , Hui Liao  14 , Zhihua Wang  5   12   15 , Libo Zhang  1   2
Affiliations

Evolution of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases

Rongrong Pang et al. Aging (Albany NY). .

Abstract

The characteristics of COVID-19 patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases (AIRD) have rarely been reported. Patients with AIRD have suppressed immune defense function, which may increase their susceptibility to COVID-19. However, the immunosuppressive agents AIRD patients routinely used may be beneficial for protecting the cytokine storm caused by SARS-CoV-2. In this retrospective study, we included all confirmed cases in Huoshenshan Hospital from February 4 to April 9. Data were extracted from electronic medical records and were analyzed for clinical and laboratory features using SPSS (version 25.0). Of 3059 patients, 21 had the comorbidities with systematic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and/or rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including 5 with SLE, 15 with RA, and 1 with Rhupus. The proportion was 57.1% for severe cases, 61.9% for either severe or critical cases, and 4.8% for critical cases. The main manifestations, ARDS and ICU admission rate, as well as the mortality and length of hospital stay of COVID-19 in AIRD patients were similar to COVID-19 patients in the general population. Our preliminary experience shows that patients with AIRD tend to have a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and may be at risk for a severe but less likely critical disease course. Further investigation is needed to understand the immunological features of these diseases.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 virus; autoimmune rheumatic diseases; coronavirus disease 2019; rheumatoid arthritis; systematic lupus erythematosus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Mehta P, McAuley DF, Brown M, Sanchez E, Tattersall RS, Manson JJ, and HLH Across Speciality Collaboration, UK. COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression. Lancet. 2020; 395:1033–34. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30628-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vaninov N. In the eye of the COVID-19 cytokine storm. Nat Rev Immunol. 2020; 20:277. 10.1038/s41577-020-0305-6 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ye Q, Wang B, Mao J. The pathogenesis and treatment of the ’Cytokine storm’ in COVID-19. J Infect. 2020; 80:607–13. 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.03.037 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhang C, Wu Z, Li JW, Zhao H, Wang GQ. Cytokine release syndrome in severe COVID-19: interleukin-6 receptor antagonist tocilizumab may be the key to reduce mortality. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020; 55:105954. 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105954 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Auyeung TW, Lee JS, Lai WK, Choi CH, Lee HK, Lee JS, Li PC, Lok KH, Ng YY, Wong WM, Yeung YM. The use of corticosteroid as treatment in SARS was associated with adverse outcomes: a retrospective cohort study. J Infect. 2005; 51:98–102. 10.1016/j.jinf.2004.09.008 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types