Clinical outcomes of patients with systemic rheumatic disease with COVID-19 infection (n=52) and age, sex and diagnosis date matched comparators (n=104)
| Characteristic | Rheumatic disease (n=52) | No rheumatic disease (n=104) | P value |
| Hospitalisation | 23 (44) | 42 (40) | 0.50 |
| Length of stay (days) | 8 (4–21) | 9 (4–16) | 0.83 |
| Oxygen required* | 17 (74) | 26 (67) | 0.55 |
| Intensive care admission/mechanical ventilation*† | 11 (48) | 7 (18) | 0.01 |
| Days of mechanical ventilation | 15 (4–24) | 12 (5–28) | 0.53 |
| Pharmacological treatment‡ | 23 (44) | 36 (35) | 0.24 |
| Hydroxychloroquine§ | 16 (31) | 19 (19) | 0.10 |
| Azithromycin | 18 (35) | 26 (26) | 0.25 |
| Interleukin-6 receptor inhibitor | 1 (2) | 0 | 0.16 |
| Remdesivir | 2 (4) | 0 | 0.05 |
| Management of immunosuppressive medications during infection¶ | |||
| Medications held | 12 (23) | ||
| Medications continued | 6 (12) | ||
| Unknown | 34 (65) | ||
| Rheumatologist notified | 5 (10) | ||
| Deceased | 3 (6) | 4 (4) | 0.69 |
Data are represented by median (IQR) or number (percentage).
*Denominator used for calculation is the number of hospitalised patients.
†No patients required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. All patients with intensive care admission were also mechanically ventilated.
‡One patient among the cases and eight patients among the comparators were enrolled in randomised placebo-controlled trials, which included study drugs of tocilizumab, sarliumab and remdesivir, and the patients’ randomisation arms are unknown.
§Hydroxychloroquine given for the purpose of COVID-19 treatment or beyond baseline dose if patient was already receiving this as a medication for rheumatic disease.
¶Hydroxychloroquine was not included as an immunosuppressive medication. Glucocorticoids, biological DMARDs, conventional synthetic DMARDs and targeted synthetic DMARDs were included.
DMARDs, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.