Paper
Background: Sjögren's disease (SD) patients have some specific features that could make them even more prone to SARS-CoV-2 infection (mucosal dryness, altered exocrine gland excretions), but the data are limited. Objectives: The aim of our study was to determine clinical and epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a well-defined cohort of patients with SD. Methods: Our cohort consisted of patients diagnosed with SD based on the ACR/EULAR 2016 classification criteria1 between January 2016 and December 2019. Patients were regularly followed at our secondary/tertiary centre. In March 2022 retrospective reviews of patient's medical record were performed, searching for any information about the confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in the period between March 2020 and February 2022. All patients with a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were contacted by phone to fulfill a questionnaire regarding their infection course (mild disease or severe disease - latter defined as need of hospitalization, thrombotic events, due to SARS-CoV-2 infection or death). Descriptive statistics were used to explore the studied population by using SPSS version 27. Results: In our cohort of 169 SD patients (94% female, median age 60.5 [IQR: 51-69, range: 23-88]) 66 patients had at least one SARS-CoV-2 infection documented (39 %), in most patients (48/66, 72.7 %) the infection course was mild. Five patients (7.5%) had severe infection requiring hospitalization (3 patients between March and December 2021 and 2 patients in early 2022). There were no deaths and thrombotic events due to infection. The comparison of characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infected group to SARS-CoV-2 negative group (Table 1) showed that males and younger patients were more at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. We found no differences in unstimulated salivary flow test, Schirmer's test, Rose Bengal test or baseline ESSDAI between SD patients with and without SARS COV-2 infection. Conclusion: Almost 40 % of our SD patients had at least one SARS-CoV-2 infection during the 24 month observation period. Younger males were at greater risk of COVID-19, but we did not find any association between the objective severity of mucosal dryness nor baseline systemic disease activity and the risk of SARS-COV-2 infection. REFERENCES: [1] Shiboski CH, et al. Arthritis Rheumatol 2017;69:35–45. Table 1. Clinical and laboratory characteristics of SD patients with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection BMI – Body Mass Index, USF – Unstimulated Salivary Flow, CRP – C-reactive protein, ESR – Elevated Sedimentation Rate, aENA – Anti-Extractable Nuclear Antigen Antibody, RF – Rheumatoid Factor, ESSDAI – EULAR Sjögren's syndrome disease activity index Acknowledgements: NIL. Disclosure of Interests: None declared.