Análise dos sintomas gripais em pacientes com doenças reumatológicas que fazem uso de corticoterapia durante a pandemia de COVID-19 no Distrito Federal

Abstract

The risk of infection is bigger in cases of active disease and in use of polypharmacy with immunosuppressive drugs. Exposure to immunosuppression is more relevant than the type of disease 1 . Discussing the impact of COVID-19 on rheumatologic patients is essential, given the dysregulation of the immune system and associated comorbidities 1,2 . Despite the increased risk of infection from the use of corticosteroids in moderate to high doses, the American Society of Rheumatology guidelines does not recommend abrupt discontinuation of treatment for rheumatologic diseases during a corticosteroid COVID-191. This study seeks to understand the impact of corticosteroid therapy on the emergence of flu-like symptoms during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. METHODSThe cohort study was conducted by means of electronic interviews with patients and controls in the Brazilian Federal District in the first half of 2020, in which self-reported influenza symptoms were investigated following the Brazilian Ministry of Health criteria. this study was part of the Mario Pinotti II project from the Brazilian Society of Rheumatology. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The association of influenza data and corticotherapy use was done by means of chi-squared or Fisher's exact test, and the normality of the data was tested with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.