Assessment of the clinical symptoms and prognosis in patients with inflammatory autoimmune diseases treated by biologic agents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the clinical signs and prognosis of Covid-19 in patients with autoimmune inflammatory diseases treated with biologic drugs. Materials and Methods: In this study, patients with autoimmune inflammatory diseases were diagnosed by a subspecialty physician who was being treated with biologic drugs and at the same time were diagnosed with Covid-19 disease. And were collected if desired and with the cooperation of the individual. Informed consent form was obtained from all patients. Using the questionnaire, demographic information including age, sex, occupation, education, marital status, type of autoimmune inflammatory disease and the duration of the disease as well as information about the use of drugs were collected. Also, the clinical signs of patients and the symptoms of Covid-19 in these people were evaluated and recorded. Results: 257 patients with autoimmune inflammatory disease were studied with a mean age of 48.4 years and in 21.4% of them inflammatory disease was in the active phase. Rheumatoid arthritis, SLE and IBD were the most common diseases in the patients studied, respectively. 12.4% of the patients had diabetes, which was one of the risk factors involved in the hospitalization of patients. 69.6% of patients used prednisolone to control inflammatory disease. Multivariate regression analysis showed a higher risk of hospitalization.