PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Francesco Ursini
AU  - Piero Ruscitti
AU  - Olga Addimanda
AU  - Rosario Foti
AU  - Vincenzo Raimondo
AU  - Giuseppe Murdaca
AU  - Virginia Caira
AU  - Erika Pigatto
AU  - Giovanna Cuomo
AU  - Alberto Lo Gullo
AU  - Ilaria Cavazzana
AU  - Corrado Campochiaro
AU  - Caterina Naclerio
AU  - Rossella De Angelis
AU  - Jacopo Ciaffi
AU  - Luana Mancarella
AU  - Veronica Brusi
AU  - Elena Marchetti
AU  - Francesca Motta
AU  - Marcella Visentini
AU  - Sebastiano Lorusso
AU  - Maria De Santis
AU  - Giacomo De Luca
AU  - Laura Massaro
AU  - Domenico Olivo
AU  - Roberta Pellegrini
AU  - Francesca Francioso
AU  - Jessica Luppino
AU  - Ilenia Di Cola
AU  - Roberta Foti
AU  - Giuseppe Varcasia
AU  - Francesco Caso
AU  - Massimo Reta
AU  - Lorenzo Dagna
AU  - Carlo Selmi
AU  - Annamaria Iagnocco
AU  - Roberto Giacomelli
AU  - Florenzo Iannone
AU  - Clodoveo Ferri
TI  - Inflammatory rheumatic diseases with onset after SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccination: a report of 267 cases from the COVID-19 and ASD group
AID  - 10.1136/rmdopen-2023-003022
DP  - 2023 Jun 01
TA  - RMD Open
PG  - e003022
VI  - 9
IP  - 2
4099  - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/9/2/e003022.short
4100  - http://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/9/2/e003022.full
SO  - RMD Open2023 Jun 01; 9
AB  - Objectives To better define the spectrum of new-onset post-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 vaccine inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRD) from a large multicentric observational study.Methods Consecutive cases of IRD encountered during a 12-month period and satisfying one of the following inclusion criteria: (a) onset of the rheumatic manifestations within 4 weeks from SARS-CoV-2 infection or (b) onset of the rheumatic manifestations within 4 weeks from the administration of one of the COVID-19 vaccines ws recruited.Results The final analysis cohort comprised 267 patients, of which 122 (45.2%) in the post-COVID-19 and 145 (54.8%) in the postvaccine cohort. Distribution of IRD categories differed between the two cohorts: the post-COVID-19 cohort had a higher percentage of patients classified as having inflammatory joint diseases (IJD, 52.5% vs 37.2%, p=0.013) while the post-vaccine cohort had a higher prevalence of patients classified as polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR, 33.1% vs 21.3%, p=0.032). No differences were detected in the percentage of patients diagnosed with connective tissue diseases (CTD 19.7% vs 20.7%, p=0.837) or vasculitis (6.6% vs 9.0%, p=0.467). Despite the short follow-up period, IJD and PMR patients’ response to first-line therapy was favourable, with both groups achieving a drop in baseline disease activity scores of ~30% and ~70% respectively.Conclusion Our article reports the largest cohort published to date of new-onset IRD following SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccines. Although causality cannot be ascertained, the spectrum of possible clinical manifestations is broad and includes IJD, PMR, CTD and vasculitis.Data are available upon reasonable request.