| Patient characteristics | Rituximab (n= 392) | Other bDMARDs (n= 724) | Univariate analysis, p-value | Multivariate analysis, p-value |
| Median age (years), — [IQR] | 64 [56-71] | 57.3 [47.0-67.0] | < 0.0001 | 0.51 |
| Female — n (%) | 285 (72.7) | 426 (58.8) | < 0.0001 | 0.58 |
| IA diagnosis | < 0.0001 | 0.12 | ||
| Median follow-up from 1st September to last news | 14 [13-15] | 15 [14-16] | < 0.0001 | 0.86 |
| Confirmed severe COVID-19 cases —n (%) | 9 (2.3) | 1 (0.1) | 0.0003 | 0.019 |
| Comorbidities** (history of) — n (%) | ||||
| Cardiovascular disease | 60 (15.4) | 167 (23.1) | 0.0025 | 0.77 |
| Chronic lung disease, | 92 (23.5) | 84 (11.6) | 0.0001 | 0.88 |
| Median BMI (kg/m2) — [IQR] | 25.8 [23.2-29.4] | 27.3 [23.4-31.2] | 0.015 | 0.80 |
| Treatments — n (%) | ||||
| Methotrexate | 179 (45.8) | 322 (44.5) | 0.71 | |
| Leflunomide | 41 (10.5) | 39 (5.4) | 0.0023 | 0.43 |
| Hydroxychloroquine | 35 (8.9) | 24 (3.3) | 0.0001 | 0.15 |
| Glucocorticoids | 127 (41.8) | 100 (19.4) | < 0.0001 | 0.36 |
| Median dose (mg/day) — [IQR] | 1 [0-5] | 0 [0-0] | < 0.0001 | |
No significant difference in terms of baseline gammaglobulins (p=0.46) or number of previous RTX infusions (p=0.57) was observed among patients receiving RTX with or without a severe COVID-19.