PREVALENCE of LONG COVID in RHEUMATIC DISEASE PATIENTS: ANALYSIS of SAR COVID REGISTRY
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
; 81:1668-1669, 2022.
Article
in English
| EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2008860
ABSTRACT
Background:
Persistent symptoms after acute COVID have been described previously. Main symptoms reported are fatigue, arthralgias, myalgias and mental sickness. Defnition and methods vary widely.1Objectives:
To asses prevalence and related factors to long COVID in a retrospective cohort of patients with rheumatic diseases from Argentina.Methods:
A total of 1915 patients were registered from August 18th, 2020 to July 29th, 2021. Patients > 18 years old, with rheumatic disease and confrmed infection by SARS-CoV-2 (antigen or RT-PCR) were included. Those dead, with unknown outcome, wrong date or missing data were excluded. Demographic data, comorbidities, rheumatic disease, and characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection were recorded. Long COVID was defned according to NICE guidelines (persistent symptoms for more than 4 weeks, without alternative diagnosis). Long COVID symptoms were defned by rheumatologist. Severity of infection was clas-sifed according to WHO ordinal scale. We used descriptive statistics, univariate model (Student's test, chi square test, ANOVA) and multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results:
230 (12%) had long COVID. Median age was 51 (IQR 40-61]) years, 82% were females, 51% were not caucasian. Median of education was 13.3 years (IQR 12-16), 79 % had private health insurance and 55 % were employed. Nearly half (n=762, 46%) had comorbidities, the most prevalent was hypertension (n=396, 24%). The most frequent rheumatic diseases were rheumatoid arthritis (n=719, 42%) and systemic lupus ery-thematosus (n=280, 16 %). Most were in low activity/remission (79%), used Conventional DMARD (n=773 patients, 45%) and steroids (n=588, 34%) at low dose (n=415, 71%). Main laboratory findings were abnormal D-di-mer (n=94, 28%) and leukopenia (n=93, 26%). Most patients had a WHO ordinal scale < 5 (n=1472, 86%). Median of hospitalization at intensive care unit (ICU) was 8 days [IQR 5, 13]. Treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection (steroids, anticoagulation, azithromycin, convalescent plasma) was used in 461 (27%) patients. Most of long COVID (n= 152, 69%) reported 1 symptom, the most frequent was fatigue (n= 55, 22%). Figure 1. Univariate analysis is presented in Table 1. In multivariate logistic regression analysis non-caucasian ethnicity OR 1.44 (1.07-1.95), years of education OR 1.05 (1-1.09), treatment with cyclophosphamide OR 11.35 (1.56-112.97), symptoms of COVID-19 OR 13.26 (2.75-242.08), severity scale WHO ≥ 5 OR 2.46 (1.68-3.57), and ICU hospitalization days OR 1.09 (1.05-1.14) were factors associated to long COVID.Conclusion:
Prevalence of long COVID was 12%. Non-caucasian ethnicity, higher education, treatment with cyclophosphamide, symptoms of COVID-19, severe disease and ICU hospitalization days were related to long COVID.
antigen; azithromycin; convalescent plasma; cyclophosphamide; disease modifying antirheumatic drug; steroid; adult; analysis of variance; anticoagulation; Caucasian; cohort analysis; comorbidity; conference abstract; controlled study; coronavirus disease 2019; demographics; drug therapy; education; educational status; ethnicity; fatigue; female; hospitalization; human; hypertension; intensive care unit; leukopenia; long COVID; low drug dose; major clinical study; male; middle aged; nonhuman; practice guideline; prevalence; private health insurance; remission; retrospective study; rheumatic disease; rheumatoid arthritis; rheumatologist; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; systemic lupus erythematosus; tertiary education; univariate analysis
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
EMBASE
Type of study:
Observational study
Topics:
Long Covid
Language:
English
Journal:
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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