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. 2022 Mar;52(3):379-385.
doi: 10.1111/imj.15673. Epub 2022 Feb 3.

No association of Gaucher disease with COVID-19-related outcomes: a nationwide cohort study

Ibrahim Demirci  1 , Tevfik Demir  2 , Selcuk Dagdelen  3 , Cem Haymana  1 , Ilker Tasci  4 , Aysegul Atmaca  5 , Derun Ertugrul  6 , Naim Ata  7 , Mustafa Sahin  8 , Serpil Salman  9 , Ibrahim Sahin  10 , Rifat Emral  8 , Ugur Unluturk  3 , Erman Cakal  11 , Osman Celik  12 , Murat Caglayan  13 , Ilhan Satman  14 , Alper Sonmez  15
Affiliations

No association of Gaucher disease with COVID-19-related outcomes: a nationwide cohort study

Ibrahim Demirci et al. Intern Med J. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Background: It is well documented that patients with chronic metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity, are adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when the subject is rare metabolic diseases, there are not enough data in the literature.

Aim: To investigate the course of COVID-19 among patients with Gaucher disease (GD), the most common lysosomal storage disease.

Methods: Based on the National Health System data, a retrospective cohort of patients with confirmed (polymerase chain reactionpositive) COVID-19 infection (n = 149 618) was investigated. The adverse outcomes between patients with GD (n = 39) and those without GD (n = 149 579) were compared with crude and propensity score-matched (PSM) groups. The outcomes were hospitalisation, the composite of intensive care unit (ICU) admission and/or mechanical ventilation and mortality.

Results: The patients with GD were significantly older and had a higher frequency of hypertension (HT), Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), dyslipidaemia, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, heart failure and cancer. Although hospitalisation rates in Gaucher patients were found to be higher in crude analyses, the PSM models (model 1, age and gender matched; model 2, matched for age, gender, HT, T2DM and cancer) revealed no difference for the outcomes between patients with GD and the general population. According to multivariate regression analyses, having a diagnosis of GD was not a significant predictor for hospitalisation (P = 0.241), ICU admission/mechanical ventilation (P = 0.403) or mortality (P = 0.231).

Conclusion: According to our national data, SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with GD does not have a more severe course than the normal population.

Keywords: COVID-19; Gaucher; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; mortality; national.

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