The systemic sclerosis patient in the COVID-19 era: the challenging crossroad between immunosuppression, differential diagnosis and long-term psychological distress

Orlandi, Martina; Lepri, Gemma; Bruni, Cosimo; Wang, Yukai; Bartoloni, Alessandro; Zammarchi, Lorenzo; Cometi, Laura; Guiducci, Serena; Matucci-Cerinic, Marco; Bellando-Randone, Silvia

COVID-19 is a world health emergency which may inevitably affect the management of a complex autoimmune disease such as systemic sclerosis (SSc). Several SSc patients are frail and, in this pandemic, need a careful protection. The COVID-19 infection might complicate the clinical scenario of interstitial lung disease (ILD) in SSc because it determines a severe pneumonia characterized by radiological features similar to SSc-ILD. The striking CT similarities between the 2 diseases make it difficult to distinguish a worsening of SSc-ILD from COVID-19-ILD superinfection. Moreover, other aspects, like isolation during lock down, may cause a significant psychological stress which will pile up on the already difficult contact with the patients for a routine check-up. Moreover, the drug shortage is a real problem in these times. For these reasons, the rheumatologist in daily clinical practice should carefully differentiate the possible COVID-19 infection in order to optimize the patient management. Therefore, the challenge in everyday life will be to achieve in due time the differential diagnosis as well as the long-term psychological impact.