Volume 52, Issue 1, January 2023, Page 1-9.

Volume 52, Issue 1, January 2023, Page 10-16.

Volume 52, Issue 1, January 2023, Page 17-24.

We read with great interest the article by Akiyama et al,1 which evaluated the prevalence and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases. This important work showed that patients with autoimmune diseases had an increased risk of COVID-19, primarily attributed to glucocorticoid use. However, several issues that may affect the results should be noted. First, it was unclear what type of studies this study included, we observed that the expression of ‘observational studies and case–control studies’ has been mentioned many times, but as far as we know, case–controls belongs to the category of observational studies. We hope that authors can clarify the criteria for inclusion of study types. For questions of prevalence, cross-sectional studies using probabilistic random samples conducted in the relevant geographical setting or location are the most appropriate study design, whereas questions of incidence are best answered in cohort studies.2 Distinguishing...

We thank Shi et al1 for their interest and comments on our research article ‘Prevalence and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis’.2 The following is our point by point reply to their comments. First, in terms of case-controlled study, we included studies with data regarding the prevalence or clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases (ADs) and patients without ADs or the general population. We agree that subgroup analysis according to study design can often be useful in identifying heterogeneity. Second, we agree that the risk of bias (RoB) assessment is an important step to conduct systematic review and meta-analysis. As Shi et al suggested, several tools are available to assess the RoB of individual studies included in the meta-analysis.3 Meanwhile, the Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) is a well-validated...

COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2, is an unprecedented global pandemic. Advanced age and cardiovascular diseases are recognised as major comorbidities associated with severe forms of COVID-19. Patients with large vessels vasculitis (LVV) could be considered at-risk for severe COVID-19 due to frequent age over 65 years in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA), severe hypertension in patients with Takayasu arteritis (TAK) and current use of immunomodulating therapies in both LVV. Data on prevalence, clinical presentation and outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection among patients with LVV are lacking.1–3 Tomelleri et al reported their experience in a single tertiary centre in Lombardy, the Italian region with the highest proportion of infected subjects.2 Their incidence rate of confirmed COVID-19 infection by nasopharyngeal PCR was 2.5% (4/162). Two patients required hospitalisation for COVID-19 interstitial pneumonia and no death was observed. We report our experience on clinical...