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We read with interest the article by Monti et al,1 who evidenced, in a cohort of subjects affected by COVID-19, a low prevalence of patients treated with biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (tsDMARDs).
Despite a notable heterogeneity in different countries and even in different regions of the same country, a high lethality is reported among elderly patients with several comorbidities.2
National and international registers have been created to collect patients affected by rheumatic diseases, as well as patients with interstitial lung disorders.3
Since 20 February to 7 April 2020, we collected clinical data of 859 patients affected by different rheumatic diseases and sarcoidosis, treated with stable and full dosage of bDMARDs or tsDMARDs at Siena Rheumatology Unit and Siena Regional Referral Centre for Sarcoidosis.
All patients underwent a telephone survey in order to establish their clinical status, the appearance of signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and the presence of …
Footnotes
Contributors EC conceived the paper. EC, EB and GDR wrote the paper. LC revised the paper. BF supervised the team. MB, SG, CBal, FB, CBar, RDA, PC, DB and NL collected clinical data.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.