Fiyz̤ (Jun 2022)
Comparing the severity and risk of developing COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory and non-inflammatory connective tissue diseases
Abstract
Background: Covid-19 disease was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Inflammatory connective tissue diseases include rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and non-inflammatory types include osteoarthritis and discopathy. This study was performed to compare the severity and risk of COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory and non-inflammatory connective tissue diseases. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on patients with COVID-19 with positive PCR in a population of 2370 patients with inflammatory connective tissue (1030 cases) and non-inflammatory patients (1340 cases). Sampling was performed by convenience method. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16. Results: In this study, 190 patients (including 142 cases of inflammatory and 48 cases of non-inflammatory connective tissue disorders) with COVID-19. The risk of COVID-19 was estimated 8.01% in connective tissue cases, 13.8% in inflammatory connective tissue patients and 3.6% in cases with non-inflammatory types. Another finding of our study was a significant difference between the two groups of inflammatory and non-inflammatory connective tissue patients in terms of the severity of COVID-19, so that the severity of the infection was higher in the inflammatory group. Conclusion: The results of the present study show that the risk of COVID-19 is 3.8 times higher in patients with inflammatory connective tissue disorders than in patients with non-inflammatory connective tissue disorders.
