Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with an inflammatory rheumatic disease

The study was originally designed to investigate whether patients with a rheumatic disease become more seriously ill from a SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to healthy control participants, and what the effect of immunosuppressive medications is on this. To answer these questions, we set up a digital research platform and used finger pricks to collect blood from participants. This combination allowed data collection to take place completely remotely, which greatly increased efficiency. The most important outcome of the study is that most patients with rheumatic diseases do not have an increased risk of hospitalization due to a corona infection, with the exception of patients treated with B-cell inhibitors. In addition, we saw that antibody production after corona vaccinations was greatly reduced in patients who received B-cell inhibitors. Thus, our results emphasize that it is important for rheumatologists to be cautious when prescribing B-cell inhibitors.