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Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 and rheumatic disease in China ‘hot spot’ versus in US ‘hot spot’: similarities and differences

We read with great interest the article by D’Silva et al concerning clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 and rheumatic disease.1 In this study, the authors mentioned that patients with and without rheumatic disease had similar symptoms and laboratory findings, but those with rheumatic disease were more likely to require mechanical ventilation.

We analysed our data of 3059 patients with confirmed COVID-19, including 29 cases in combination with rheumatic diseases from Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, which was a ‘hot spot’ of COVID-19 in China, from 4 February 2020 to 9 April 2020. There were 15 rheumatoid arthritis, 5 systematic lupus erythematosus, 1 Rhupus, 2 myasthenia gravis, 1 Sjogren’s syndrome, 1 ankylosing spondylitis, 1 dermatomyositis, 1 autoimmune liver disease and 2 undifferentiated connective tissue disease cases (figure 1). The study population encompassed 4 men and 25 women, with median age of 61 years. Twenty-one patients presented with cough, 21 patients had fatigue, 3 had diarrhoea, 14 had varying degrees of difficulty in breathing and fever was observed in all cases.



Figure 1 
Basic situation and medication of patients with …