EN | RU
EN | RU

Help Support

Back

In chronic inflammatory arthritis patients, corticosteroid use found to increase the risk of COVID-19 infection; immunomodulators appear safe

In chronic inflammatory arthritis patients, corticosteroid use found to increase the risk of COVID-19 infection; immunomodulators appear safe In chronic inflammatory arthritis patients, corticosteroid use found to increase the risk of COVID-19 infection; immunomodulators appear safe
In chronic inflammatory arthritis patients, corticosteroid use found to increase the risk of COVID-19 infection; immunomodulators appear safe In chronic inflammatory arthritis patients, corticosteroid use found to increase the risk of COVID-19 infection; immunomodulators appear safe

What's new?

Physicians can continue recommending ts/bDMARDs to chronic arthritis patients in the COVD-19 pandemic times without a heightened risk of infection.

As per a study published in ‘BMC- Arthritis Research & Therapy’ in recent days, the use of immunomodulatory medications was found to be safe during the COVID-19 pandemic in rheumatoid arthritis patients. On the other hand, glucocorticoids at low-dose (particularly at > 2.5 mg everyday) may increase the chances of infection.

This study by Ennio Giulio Favalli et al. explored the impact of glucocorticoids and immunosuppressive agents in a large population of 2050 patients with chronic immune-mediated inflammatory arthritis.

A cross-sectional survey helped to investigate the frequency of SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal swab positivity and incidence of acute respiratory illness. This survey was performed either face-to-face or by phone in consecutive patients. Keeping in view the WHO criteria, the COVID-19 cases were identified as confirmed or highly suspicious. Medication effect on COVID-19 development was examined.

Out of the total study population, 23 patients (1.1%) and 29 patients (1.4%) reported laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 and highly suspicious infection. Patients on glucocorticoids and targeted-synthetic/biological (ts/b) disease-modifying drugs (DMARDs) were independently linked with increased and decreased risk of COVID-19, respectively. There were no independent effects of age, gender, csDMARDs, and comorbidities.

Source:

BMC- Arthritis Research & Therapy

Article:

Impact of corticosteroids and immunosuppressive therapies on symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in a large cohort of patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis

Authors:

Ennio Giulio Favalli et al.

Comments (2)

You want to delete this comment? Please mention comment Invalid Text Content Text Content cannot me more than 1000 Something Went Wrong Cancel Confirm Confirm Delete Hide Replies View Replies View Replies en ru ua
Try: