Rituximab treatment may increase ICU admissions, mortality in COVID-19 patients: Study
France: The administration of rituximab in patients with inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases is associated with more severe COVID-19 outcomes, a recent study in the journal Lancet Rheumatology has found.
Prior to this study, various observations have suggested the course of COVID-19 to be less favorable in patients with inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases who received rituximab compared with those who did not receive rituximab. Prof Jérôme Avouac from France and colleagues aimed to investigate whether treatment with rituximab is associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes in patients with inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in this cohort study.
For this purpose, the researchers analyzed data from the French RMD COVID-19 cohort that included patients aged 18 years or older with inflammatory rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases and highly suspected or confirmed COVID-19.
The primary endpoint was the severity of COVID-19 in patients treated with rituximab (rituximab group) compared with patients who did not receive rituximab (no rituximab group). Severe disease was defined as that requiring admission to an intensive care unit or leading to death.
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