Background:
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease that manifests as stiffness, swelling, and pain in the joints, typical of symmetrical polyarthritis.
Aim:
To study the clinical impact of COVID-19 infection on rheumatoid arthritis patients in Aswan university hospital.
Materials and methods:
a Retrospective study was carried out in the rheumatology outpatient clinic in Aswan university hospital.
250 RA patients diagnosed according to the 2010 ACR/EULAR classification criteria, Diagnosis of COVID-19 will be made in the patients with clinical manifestations consistent with COVID-19 and meeting one of the following criteria: Positive PCR or Chest CT scans findings of COVID-19 pneumonia.
Results :
COVID-19 positivity was higher in RA patients who had DM, and also showed a statistically significant increase in DAS 28, Arthralgia, Arthritis, Nervous system and GIT affection and Chest symptoms among the infected group as p-Value <0.05.
However, there were no statistical significant difference between the two groups regarding sociodemografic data, lab investigations, radiological investigations and treatment as p-Value <0.05.
Conclusion:
DM increases the risk of Covid-19 infection in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. It caused reduced juxta-articular osteopenia and greater arthralgia, arthritis, nervous system, GIT, CVS, and chest symptoms with elevated platelet counts. Also, Covid-19 infection results in significant increase in disease activity (DAS 28) in RA patients.