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There is concern around coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and rheumatic diseases. Systemic vasculitis was the fourth most common rheumatic disease among patients hospitalised for COVID-19.1 However, the diagnosis of anti-neutrophil cytoplasm antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) can be challenging during COVID-19 pandemic for several reasons: first, clinical presentation of patients with AAV partially overlaps with COVID-19; second, patients with initial symptoms of AAV may be concerned to seek medical help in order not to get into close contact with other patients; and third, diagnosis may be delayed because non-urgent tests and visits might have been postponed due to COVID-19 related closure of services. Herein, we report the poor and irreversible clinical outcomes of diagnostic delay of AAV during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We recently encountered a cluster of nine life-threatening presentations of new-onset or relapsing AAV admitted to a Verona hospital, all negative for SARS-CoV-2 by nasopharyngeal swab or bronchoalveolar fluid aspiration. We compared clinical characteristics of this group presenting in the time frame of 6 weeks during the second trimester of 2020 (1st April to 30th June), with AAV patients presented in the same period of 2018 and 2019 (table 1 …
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Contributors AG: provided the conception of the study, literature search and interpretation of data, drafting the article and revised it critically for important intellectual content. RB: provided data search, interpretation of data, drafting the article and revised it critically for important intellectual content. All authors: revised the article critically for important intellectual content and gave final approval of the version to be submitted.
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.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
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