The profile of patients consulted by rheumatologists in the largest outpatient department in Latvia during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic

This study aims to analyse rheumatic disease profile and treatment aspects of the patients consulted in the outpatient department of Pauls Stradins Clinical University Hospital (PSCUH) during the first month of COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected from the local database of the Centre of Rheumatology of PSCUH from 2020 March 13 till April 14. The analysed variables were: gender, age, diagnosis, groups of medications used for the treatment of rheumatic disease: synthetic disease modifying antirheumatic drug (sDMARD), biologic DMARD (bDMARD), glucocorticoid (GC), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), treatment adjustment during the consultation, comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, malignancy, chronic respiratory disease). 457 (76.04%) distant and 144 (23.96%) face-to-face consultations were analysed, totaling 601 patients: 434 (72.21 %) females and 167 (27.79 %) males with the mean age of 51.40 ± 14.73 (range 18–89) years. The majority of patients (156 (25.96%)) was aged from 50 to 59 years. Rheumatoid arthritis (223 (37.10%)), psoriatic arthritis (93 (15.47%)) and ankylosing spondylitis (80 (13.31%)) were the most frequently consulted conditions. DMARDs were taken by 515 (85.69 %) patients treated with monotherapy of sDMARD (242 (46.99%)), mainly methotrexate, or bDMARD (156 (30.29%)), mainly tumour necrosis factor inhibitor. More than a half of the cohort (427 (71.05%)) was not taking a GC. Treatment was adjusted in 98 (16.31%) cases, mainly dosage increase or initiation of sDMARD (57 (58.16%)). Cessation of treatment due to undesirable side effects was made in 9 (1.50%) cases. NSAIDs were used in 391 (65.08%) patients, mainly on demand (354 (90.54%)). Most patients (401 (66.72%)) had no comorbidities. The most frequent comorbidity was cardiovascular disease (146 (73.00%)). The profile of patients consulted in the outpatient department consisted mainly of middle age females with autoimmune inflammatory arthritis treated by DMARD without usage of GCs and regular intake of NSAIDs and absence of comorbidities.