Effect of immunosuppressive drugs in Immune‐mediated Inflammatory disease during the Coronavirus pandemic

Giuliani, Federica; Gualdi, Giulio; Amerio, Paolo

The safety of immunosuppressive treatment in patients with Immune‐Mediated Inflammatory Diseases (IMIDs) during the Coronavirus pandemic is questioned and it is utmost important for public health. We searched studies trough MEDLINE/EMBASE database, including patient with IMID, undergoing immunosuppressive treatment with a positive diagnosis for SARS‐CoV 2. We included 11 studies for the descriptive analysis and 10 studies for the pooled analysis, with a total population of 57 and 53 IMID‐affected SARS‐CoV‐positive patients respectively. Overall no death was reported; 16 patients were hospitalized (30.2%) and only 2 cases were admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (3.8%). We found a significant association between the risk of hospitalization and older age (p 0.03), obesity (p 0.02) and presence of multi‐comorbidity (p 0.03). No significant association was found between the risk of hospitalization and the use of biological or conventional DMARDs (respectively p 0.32 and 0.26), neither when they are used combined (p 0.85). We found consistent results in the sub‐analysis of Psoriasis: 10 patients were hospitalized (31.3%) and only 1 case was admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (3.1%) Particular attention should be placed for patients with older age, obesity and multi‐comorbidity that are at higher risk of hospitalization. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.