Rheumatic Diseases In Intensive Care Unit Patients With Covid-19

Patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases have an increased risk of viral infections that can be attributed to the underlying immunological abnormalities, comorbidities and immunosuppressive therapy. Moreover, immunocompromised patients with influenza had more severe disease, longer viral shedding and more antiviral resistance while demonstrating less clinical symptoms and signs.1 COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, particularly treated with immunosuppressive agents, is also likely to follow the deleterious course previously reported in the other respiratory viral infections.2 \n\nSurprisingly, little is known about the association of COVID-19 and inflammatory rheumatic diseases, although the number of patients infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has already exceeded two millions and continues to rise in many countries, including Russia. In a recent article, Monti et al suggested that patients with chronic arthritis treated with biological and targeted synthetic disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) do not seem to be at increased risk of respiratory or life-threatening complications from COVID-19 compared with the general population.3 However, more data about the prevalence, severity and outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic disease are urgently needed to identify patients at …