Risk factors associated with COVID-19 in systemic lupus erythematosus: Results from a longitudinal prospective cohort.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus) have a higher risk of infection due to dysregulated immune system as well as long-term use of immunosuppressants (IS). This could influence the risk of COVID-19 and its outcome. METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal prospective study across 15 rheumatology centres during the first wave of the pandemic to understand the risk factors contributing to COVID-19 in SLE patients. During the 6 months follow-up, those who tested positive for COVID-19, their clinical course and outcome information were recorded. RESULTS: Through the study period (April-December 2020), 36/1379 lupus patients (2.9%) developed COVID-19. On analysing the COVID-19 positive versus negative cohort during the study period, male gender (adjusted RR 3.72, 95% C.I. 1.85,7.51) and diabetes (adjusted RR 2.94, 95% C.I. 1.28, 6.79) emerged as the strongest risk factors for COVID-19, in the adjusted analysis. There was no significant influence of organ involvement, hydroxychloroquine, glucocorticoid dosage (prednisolone< 7.5 mg or ≥ 7.5 mg/day) or IS on the risk of COVID-19. There was only one death (1/36) among the lupus patients due to COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Traditional risk factors rather than lupus disease process or IS influenced the risk of COVID-19 in our cohort.

The Pattern of Post-viral Arthritis in COVID Pandemic State: An Experience of Tertiary Care Centre.

BACKGROUND: Acute onset polyarthritis is a common presentation in rheumatology outpatient consultations, which include both post-infectious arthritis and autoimmune rheumatic diseases (AIRDs). COVID pandemic has added to the list of infectious agents that could result in arthritis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The retrospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care centre. The study included patients who presented with clinical suspicion of post-infectious arthritis between July-September 2019 and 2020. The study was extended for another 2 months to include patients who presented between October-November 2020. The patients were categorized into post-viral arthritis, post-COVID arthritis, chikungunya arthritis and AIRDs. The demographics, comorbidities, clinical presentation, examination findings and laboratory parameters and the response to treatment for each participant were collected and assessed. RESULTS: In the year 2019 and 2020 (July-Sep), the corresponding number of patients analyzed were 20 and 33. The mean duration of presentation was 1.53 (±3.10) weeks. Chikungunya arthritis was noted in 10% of patients in 2019, while it was 15.15% in 2020. Other post-viral arthritis was identified in 65% and 66.67% of patients in 2019 and 2020 respectively. In the second part of the study, 65.68% of patients were classified as post-viral arthritis, including chikungunya arthritis, post-COVID arthritis and other post-viral arthritis. Around 27% were categorized as AIRDs. Rheumatoid factor negativity and anti-nuclear antibody negativity were found to be significant (P 0.0) in categorizing the patients into post-viral arthritis group, while presence of urinary symptoms (P 0.0) classified the patients into reactive arthritis. CONCLUSION: The study revealed that the presence of chikungunya arthritis across the two years was comparable. Post-COVID arthritis needs to be considered as a potential differential in post-infectious arthritis. There are no identifiable characteristics (clinical or a simple routine laboratory parameter) that could differentiate the causes of post-infectious arthritis from AIRDs.