Impact of telemedicine on disease activity assessment: A case-crossover study nested within a cohort of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

INTRODUCTION: The utilisation of telemedicine has been rapidly growing among patients with rheumatic diseases, especially following the corona virus disease 2019 pandemic. Ease and convenience appear to dominate the reasons for this growth. However, the effects of this approach in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are yet to be revealed. In this study, we examined the effect of telemedicine on disease activity assessment and damage scores in patients with SLE. METHODS: This case-crossover study was nested within a national prospective cohort of patients with SLE in Saudi Arabia. Patients with SLE were included if they fulfilled the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics classification criteria between March 2020 and March 2021 and were assessed at three time points with 3 months between assessments, according to the standardised protocol of this cohort. Telemedicine was conducted for the first evaluation, while in-person assessments were used at the second and third visits. The primary outcome was the difference in the SLE disease activity index 2000 (SLEDAI-2K) score. The primary analysis was conducted using the repeated measure model and adjusted for potential confounders, including demographics, medications, and changes in steroid doses. Several sensitivity analyses were conducted to mitigate selection and time-varying confounders. RESULTS: A total of 92 participants were included in this study. Most patients were females (88%), with a mean (±standard deviation [SD]) age of 36 (±13) years. The mean (±SD) disease activity scores at baseline were as follows: SLEDAI-2K, 5 (±5); SLE responder index, 3.8 (±3.5); Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology damage index, 1 (±1). The mean difference in SLEDAI-2K score was -1.641 (95% confidence interval -2.773 to -0.510, p = 0.005*) between telemedicine and follow-up visits. The results were consistent in all sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION: We found that telemedicine assessment was associated with a much higher disease activity score than subsequent assessments, which may suggest an overestimation of disease activity and later assessment accuracy. Cautious adoption has been suggested for SLE patients with active disease.

Exploring rheumatoid arthritis associated interstitial lung disease a retrospective study from two Saudi tertiary care centers.

BACKGROUND: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is an increasingly recognized complication of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Many risk factors for RA-related ILD were reported. The current study aims to explore the features and risk factors of Saudi patients with RA-ILD. METHODS: This is a multicenter, retrospective, observational study of patients with RA-ILD. Clinical and radiological data from patients with RA-ILD were obtained from electronic medical records, including demographics, clinical characteristics, laboratory tests, pulmonary function tests, ECHO, and HRCT images. RESULT: Out of 732 patients, 57 had RA-ILD. The mean age at the time of ILD diagnosis was 61.9 (± 12.2) years. RA-ILD diagnosis was significantly less among females (p = 0.008). Patients who ever smoked had significantly more RA-ILD (p < 0.001). Patients with RA-ILD were more likely to present with medical comorbidities, namely diabetes (p < 0.001), hypertension (p < 0.001), ischemic heart disease (p < 0.001), and osteoarthritis (p = 0.030). The multivariate analysis revealed that the age (OR: 1.035, 95% CI: 48.45-52.86, p = 0.0001); gender (OR: 2.581, CI: 1.77-1.86, p = 0.001), DM (OR: 2.498, 95% Cl: 1.65-1.76, P = 0.0001), HTN (OR: 1.975, 95% Cl: 1.61-1.74, P = 0.019), IHD (OR: 6.043, 95% Cl: 1.89-1.93, P = 0.0001) have a significant positive association with RA-ILD. No significant differences were observed between seropositive parameters with or without RA-ILD (p > 0.05). The most common symptoms of RA-ILD were cough (55.6%) and dyspnea (30.2%), and the most common ILD pattern was Non-specific Interstitial Pneumonia (NSIP) (55.6%) followed by Usual Interstitial Pneumonia (UIP) (38.9%). Traction bronchiectasis (75.5%) and glass ground opacities (73.6%) were also observed. The mean FVC and DLCO at baseline were 64.6% and 53.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION: In this cohort of patients, Saudi RA-ILD patients had a predominant NSIP pattern conversely to what is seen globally. These findings could be explained by the lower rates of smoking in our patient population. Future prospective national studies are needed to confirm the current findings and better evaluate RA-ILD epidemiology and risk factors.