PLoS ONE (Jan 2021)

COVID-19 severity and mortality in multiple sclerosis are not associated with immunotherapy: Insights from a nation-wide Austrian registry.

  • Gabriel Bsteh,
  • Hamid Assar,
  • Harald Hegen,
  • Bettina Heschl,
  • Fritz Leutmezer,
  • Franziska Di Pauli,
  • Christiane Gradl,
  • Gerhard Traxler,
  • Gudrun Zulehner,
  • Paulus Rommer,
  • Peter Wipfler,
  • Michael Guger,
  • Christian Enzinger,
  • Thomas Berger,
  • AUT-MuSC investigators

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255316
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 7
p. e0255316

Abstract

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BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic challenges neurologists in counselling patients with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) regarding their risk by SARS-CoV-2 and in guiding disease-modifying treatment (DMT).ObjectiveTo characterize the prevalence and outcome of COVID-19 in pwMS specifically associated with different DMT in a nationwide population-based study.MethodsWe included patients aged ≥18 years with a confirmed diagnosis of MS and a diagnosis of COVID-19 established between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020. We classified COVID-19 course as either mild, severe or fatal. Impact of DMT and specifically immunosuppressants (alemtuzumab, cladribine, fingolimod, ocrelizumab or rituximab) on COVID-19 outcome was determined by multivariable models, adjusted for a-priori-risk.ResultsOf 126 MS patients with COVID-19 (mean age 43.2 years [SD 13.4], 71% female), 86.5% had a mild course, 9.5% a severe course and 3.2% died from COVID-19. A-priori-risk significantly predicted COVID-19 severity (R2 0.814; pConclusionsIn a population-based MS cohort, COVID-19 outcome was not associated with exposure to DMT and immunosuppressive DMT when accounting for other already known risk factors. This provides reassuring evidence that COVID-19 risk can be individually anticipated in MS and-except for a very small proportion of high-risk patients-treatment decisions should be primarily focused on treating MS rather than the pandemic.