Flare and change in disease activity among patients with stable rheumatoid arthritis following coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination: A prospective Chinese cohort study / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

BACKGROUND@#Vaccination has been shown effective in controlling the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and reducing severe cases. This study was to assess the flare and change in disease activity after COVID-19 vaccination in patients with stable rheumatoid arthritis (RA).@*METHODS@#A prospective cohort of RA patients in remission or with low disease activity was divided into a vaccination group and a non-vaccination group based on their COVID-19 vaccination status. Each of them was examined every 3 to 6 months. In the vaccination group, disease activity was compared before and after vaccination. The rates of flare defined as disease activity scores based on 28-joint count (DAS28) >3.2 with ΔDAS28 ≥0.6 were compared between vaccination and non-vaccination groups.@*RESULTS@#A total of 202 eligible RA patients were enrolled. Of these, 98 patients received no vaccine shot (non-vaccination group), and 104 patients received two doses of vaccine (vaccination group). The median time interval from pre-vaccination visit to the first immunization and from the second dose of vaccine to post-vaccination visit was 67 days and 83 days, respectively. The disease activity scores at pre-vaccination and post-vaccination visits in the vaccination group patients were similar. At enrollment, gender, RA disease course, seropositivity, and disease activity were comparable across the two groups. Flare was observed in five (4.8%) of the vaccination group patients and nine (9.2%) of the non-vaccination group patients at post-vaccination assessment ( P  = 0.221). In terms of safety, 29 (27.9%) patients experienced adverse events (AEs) after vaccination. No serious AEs occurred.@*CONCLUSIONS@#COVID-19 vaccinations had no significant effect on disease activity or risk of flare in RA patients in remission or with low disease activity. Patients with stable RA should be encouraged to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.

Differences in clinical features of interstitial lung disease between polymyositis and dermatomyositis / 中华风湿病学杂志

Objective To assess if there are differences in clinical features and prognosis of intersti-tial lung disease(ILD) between polymyositis(PM) and dermatomyositis(DM). Methods Medical records of 114 patients with PM/DM(31 PM-ILD, 83 DM-ILD) were reviewed retrospectively to analyze the demograph-ics , clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), pulmonary function tests (PFTs), blood gas analysis, treatments and prognosis. The differences of measured data were detected by descriptive statisitical analysis, and rates were detected by four-fold table Chi-Square test and Fisher′s exact test. Results The incidence of PM/DM-ILD was 35.8%(114/318) in this study, and DM was more prone to have ILD (χ2=5.019, P=0.025). There were significant difference in sex ratio between PM-ILD and DM-ILD(χ2=4.929, P=0.026). Arthralgia/arthritis was more common in DM-ILD than PM-ILD(χ2=7.756, P=0.005). In PM-ILD, ILD was often present before the diagnosis of PM (χ2=15.555, P sion (χ2=6.322, P=0.012) were more frequently observed in PM-ILD, while patchy shadows were more frequent in DM-ILD (χ2=5.105, P=0.024). There was no difference in PFTs and blood gas analysis between the two groups. With the similar therapeutic regimen, the prognosis of DM-ILD was significantly worse than in PM-ILD (χ2=7.595, P =0.006). Conclusion There are significant differences in sex ratio, clinical manifestations, HRCT imaging findings, and prognosis between PM-ILD and DM-ILD. We propose that the difference in the immunopathological processes of PM and DM leads to different clinical features of ILD between PM and DM.