ABSTRACT
Background: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected more than two hundred million individuals and many risk factors for increased mortality and morbidity in COVID-19 have defned. There are many studies evaluating the effect of immunosuppressants used in infammatory rheumatic diseases in the course of COVID-19. (1,2) However, fewer data are available on the course of COVID-19 in patients with Takayasu arteritis (TAK). Objectives: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of TAK patients with COVID-19. Methods: A phone survey was conducted among TAK patients that are followed up in our clinic between February 2021 and March 2021. All patients were asked whether they were diagnosed as COVID-19 during the pandemic. The patients who had a history of confrmed COVID-19 were asked about the symptoms, hos-pitalization status and the treatment received for COVID-19. Information about their chronic diseases were obtained from the patient files. Results: Among 118 TAK patients, 15 had COVID-19 infection during the frst year of pandemic, 13 of them were female and mean age was 42,5 ± 12,0 years. None of the patients had been vaccinated before the diagnosis of COVID-19. Nine of the patients were taking prednisone therapy and 3 of them were taking moderate to high doses of glucocorticoids during the infection period. Twelve patients were taking conventionally synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs), 7 patients were taking biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs), and 5 patients were taking a combination of csD-MARD and bDMARD therapy when they were diagnosed with COVID-19. Two patients were hospitalized;one of them required nasal oxygen support and discharged after 5 days. The other patient was 61 years old and had multipl comor-bidities and had admitted to intensive care unit for 5 days. One patient who had a mild COVID-19 disease had pulmonary thromboembolism 2 weeks after the infection and his symptoms resolved after starting anticoagulation therapy. All of the patients fully recovered and had no mortality related to COVID-19. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the largest cohort reporting the course of COVID-19 in TAK patients. Our data suggest that there is no increased risk for morbidity or mortality related to COVID-19 in TAK patients.