TY - JOUR T1 - Antibody development and disease severity of COVID-19 in non-immunised patients with rheumatic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: data from a prospective cohort study JF - RMD Open JO - RMD Open DO - 10.1136/rmdopen-2021-002035 VL - 8 IS - 1 SP - e002035 AU - Laura Boekel AU - Femke Hooijberg AU - Erik H Vogelzang AU - Yaëlle R Besten AU - Maureen Leeuw AU - Sadaf Atiqi AU - Ronald F van Vollenhoven AU - Carla A Wijbrandts AU - Martijn Gerritsen AU - C Krieckaert AU - Bas Dijkshoorn AU - Siham Bakhlakh AU - Juliette J Crooijmans AU - Alexandre Voskuyl AU - Irene E van der Horst-Bruinsma AU - Willem Lems AU - Taco W Kuijpers AU - S Marieke van Ham AU - Luuk Wieske AU - Filip Eftimov AU - Laura Y Kummer AU - PJ Koos van Dam AU - Eileen W Stalman AU - Maurice Steenhuis AU - Sofie Keijzer AU - Olvi Cristianawati AU - Jim Keijser AU - Floris C Loeff AU - Sander W Tas AU - Michael T Nurmohamed AU - Maarten Boers AU - Theo Rispens AU - Gertjan Wolbink Y1 - 2022/04/01 UR - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/8/1/e002035.abstract N2 - Background Research on the disease severity of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) has been inconclusive, and long-term prospective data on the development of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in these patients are lacking.Methods Adult patients with rheumatic IMIDs from the Amsterdam Rheumatology and Immunology Center, Amsterdam were invited to participate. All patients were asked to recruit their own sex-matched and age-matched control subject. Clinical data were collected via online questionnaires (at baseline, and after 1–4 and 5–9 months of follow-up). Serum samples were collected twice and analysed for the presence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies. Subsequently, IgG titres were quantified in samples with a positive test result.Findings In total, 3080 consecutive patients and 1102 controls with comparable age and sex distribution were included for analyses. Patients were more frequently hospitalised compared with controls when infected with SARS-CoV-2; 7% vs 0.7% (adjusted OR: 7.33, 95% CI: 0.96 to 55.77). Only treatment with B-cell targeting therapy was independently associated with an increased risk of COVID-19-related hospitalisation (adjusted OR: 14.62, 95% CI: 2.31 to 92.39). IgG antibody titres were higher in hospitalised compared with non-hospitalised patients, and slowly declined with time in similar patterns for patients in all treatment subgroups and controls.Interpretation We observed that patients with rheumatic IMIDs, especially those treated with B-cell targeting therapy, were more likely to be hospitalised when infected with SARS-CoV-2. Treatment with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and biological DMARDs other than B-cell targeting agents is unlikely to have negative effects on the development of long-lasting humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2.Data are available on reasonable request. We intend to share de-identified participant-level data on request after we have published all data on our predefined research objectives. Researchers who are interested in doing additional analyses using these data can contact the corresponding author. Data can only be used for scientific research without conflict of interests. After data collection has been completed and data on our predefined research objectives have been published, there will be no end date before which researchers can request access to the data. Additional documents that will be made available on request are the protocol (including all amendments) and informed consent forms. ER -