Search

Objective: Autoimmune systemic diseases (ASD) represent a predisposing condition to COVID-19. Our prospective, observational multicenter telephone survey study aimed to investigate the prevalence, prognostic factors, and outcomes of COVID-19 in Italian ASD patients., Methods: The study included 3,918 ASD pts (815 M, 3103 F; mean age 59±12SD years) consecutively recruited between March 2020 and May 2021 at the 36 referral centers of COVID-19 and ASD Italian Study Group. The possible development of COVID-19 was recorded by means of a telephone survey using a standardized symptom assessment questionnaire., Results: ASD patients showed a significantly higher prevalence of COVID-19 (8.37% vs. 6.49%; p<0.0001) but a death rate statistically comparable to the Italian general population (3.65% vs. 2.95%). Among the 328 ASD patients developing COVID-19, 17% needed hospitalization, while mild-moderate manifestations were observed in 83% of cases. Moreover, 12/57 hospitalized patients died due to severe interstitial pneumonia and/or cardiovascular events; systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients showed a significantly higher COVID-19-related death rate compared to the general population (6.29% vs. 2.95%; p=0.018). Major adverse prognostic factors to develop COVID-19 were: older age, male gender, SSc, pre-existing ASD-related interstitial lung involvement, and long-term steroid treatment. Of note, patients treated with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) showed a significantly lower prevalence of COVID-19 compared to those without (3.58% vs. 46.99%; p=0.000), as well as the SSc patients treated with low dose aspirin (with 5.57% vs. without 27.84%; p=0.000)., Conclusion: During the first three pandemic waves, ASD patients showed a death rate comparable to the general population despite the significantly higher prevalence of COVID-19. A significantly increased COVID-19- related mortality was recorded in only SSc patients' subgroup, possibly favored by preexisting lung fibrosis. Moreover, ongoing long-term treatment with csDMARDs in ASD might usefully contribute to the generally positive outcomes of this frail patients' population., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic may have a deleterious impact on patients with autoimmune systemic diseases (ASD) due to their deep immune-system alterations., Objective: This study aims to investigate the prevalence of symptomatic Covid-19 and its correlations with both organ involvement and ongoing treatments in a large series of Italian ASD patients during the first wave of pandemic., Methods: Our multicenter telephone 6-week survey included 3,029 unselected ASD patients enrolled at 36 tertiary referral centers of northern, central, and southern Italian macro-areas with different diffusion of the pandemic. Symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection was classified as definite Covid-19 (presence of symptoms plus positive oral/nasopharyngeal swabs) or highly suspected Covid-19 (highly suggestive symptoms, in the absence of a swab testing)., Results: A significantly higher prevalence of definite plus highly suspected Covid-19 compared to the Italian general population was detected in the whole ASD series (p=.000), as well as in patients from the three macro-areas (p=.000 in all). Statistically higher prevalence of Covid-19 was also found in connective tissue diseases compared to chronic arthritis subgroup (p=.000) and in ASD patients with pre-existing interstitial lung involvement (p=.000). Patients treated with either conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and/or biological DMARDs showed a significantly lower prevalence of Covid-19 (p=.000 in both). Finally, scleroderma patients undergoing low-dose aspirin showed a significantly lower rate of Covid-19 compared to those without (p=0.003)., Conclusion: The higher prevalence of Covid-19 in ASD patients, along with the significant correlations with important clinical features and therapeutic regimens, suggests the need to develop targeted prevention/management strategies during the current pandemic wave., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Mixed Cryoglobulinemia (MC) is the most frequent extrahepatic manifestation of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. MC is an autoimmune /B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by circulating immune-complexes, named cryoglobulins. MC patients exhibit symptoms due to a systemic vasculitis of small/medium size vessels (mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome, MCS) in a percentage going from 5 to 30%. The first-line therapeutic option in MCS patients is the etiologic treatment and, in the past fifteen years, antiviral therapy with Pegylated-Interferon (Peg-IFN) plus Ribavirin (RBV) represented the standard of care. Lately, the arrival of direct acting antivirals (DAAs) significantly modified the cure of HCV infection, consenting the use of IFN-free regimens. Here we report a review of the literature about the role of antiviral treatment, following its evolution, in treating HCVrelated MC. Furthermore, we report the results, after 8 weeks of treatment, of a preliminary pilot prospective study, counting 17 patients with HCV-related MC with or without MCS, treated with new generation DAAs in IFN-free regimens. After 8 weeks of DAA administration, all the subjects were HCV RNA negative. Moreover, in 6/17 (35%) patients cryoglobulins disappeared and, on the whole, in all patients a decrease of the cryocrit values was observed (p&lt;0.05). Furthermore, three MCS-HCV patients (30%) resulted to be complete clinical responders and 5 subjects (50%) partial clinical responders. Therefore, IFN-free anti-HCV treatment appears to be safe and effective in MC patients from virological and clinical points of view, thus supporting the importance of HCV eradication in leading MC remission., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)

Mixed cryoglobulinemia syndrome (MCs) is a systemic vasculitis, involving skin, joints, peripheral nerves, and several internal organs. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is recognized as the etiologic agent for the majority of MCs patients, as well as of number of autoimmune, lymphoproliferative, and neoplastic disorders. In this context, HCV-related MCs represents an important model autoimmune/ neoplastic disease triggered by a virus in humans. With regard the therapeutic strategies of MCs, we can treat these patients at different steps by means of etiological (antivirals), pathogenetic, symptomatic drugs (mainly immunosuppressors, corticosteroids, plasmapheresis). In the majority of individuals, MCs shows a mild, slow-progressive clinical course needing only symptomatic treatments, generally low doses of corticosteroids. Considering the etiopathogenesis of MCs, the eradication of HCV should be considered the gold standard in the treatment of MCs. The use of combined peg-interferon- α/ribavirin and/or novel antiviral drugs may lead to HCV eradication in a significant percentage of cases with possible remission of MCs. On the other hand, the presence of rapidly progressive, diffuse vasculitis with multiple organ involvement may be successfully treated with aggressive immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory therapies, mainly based on cyclophosphamide or rituximab, high dose corticosteroids, and plasma aphaeresis. Moreover, sequential/combined antiviral or immunosuppressive treatments could represent an useful therapeutic strategy particularly in MCs patients with major clinical manifestations. The treatment of MCs should be decided for every patient according to the severity of clinical picture. Thus, a careful follow-up of the disease is necessary, with particular attention to the possibility of cancers onset, such as B-cell lymphoma. The present review focuses on the different therapeutic strategies in patients with MCs, including the treatment of cryoglobulinemic skin ulcers, which represents one of the most discouraging complications of the disease., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)

A number of hepatic and extra-hepatic autoimmune disorders may complicate a percentage of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection that is both hepatotropic and lymphotropic agent; the resulting clinical phenotypes can be grouped into the so-called HCV syndrome. This latter includes various rheumatic disorders that are frequently characterized by clinical or serological overlap; thus, a correct patients' classification is necessary prior to decide the therapy. The management of these conditions is particularly difficult, given the coexistence of viral infection and immunological alterations. In this scenario, cryoglobulinemic vasculitis represents the prototype of HCV-related rheumatic disorders that can be treated at different levels by means of etiological (antivirals) and/or pathogenetic and/or symptomatic treatments (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, steroids, plasmapheresis, etc). In clinical practice, the therapeutic strategy should take into account the specific symptoms combination and the severity/activity of the disease, according to each patient's conditions. This review focuses on the clinico-diagnostic assessments and therapeutical approaches of some rheumatic disorders complicating HCV infection, mainly arthritis, sicca syndrome, and osteosclerosis; while, cryoglobulinemic vasculitis is comprehensively examined in another article of the present issue., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)