Factors associated with quality of life in systemic sclerosis: a cross-sectional study

© 2019, The Author(s). Introduction: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease characterized by progressive fibrosis of the skin and internal organs, leading to their failure and disturbances in the morphology and function of blood vessels. The disease affects people in different ways, and identifying how the difficulties and limitations are related to quality of life may contribute to designing helpful interventions. The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with quality of life in people with SSc. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 11 rheumatic centres in Poland. Patients diagnosed with SSc were included. Quality of life was measured using the SSc Quality of Life Questionnaire (SScQoL). The following candidate factors were entered in preliminary multivariable analysis: age, place of residence, marital status, occupational status, disease type, disease duration, pain, fatigue, intestinal problems, breathing problems, Raynaud’s symptoms, finger ulcerations, disease severity, functional disability, anxiety and depression. Factors that achieved statistical significance at the 10% level were then entered into a final multivariable model. Factors achieving statistical significance at the 5% level in the final model were considered to be associated with quality of life in SSc. Results: In total, 231 participants were included. Mean age (SD) was 55.82 (12.55) years, disease duration 8.39 (8.18) years and 198 (85.7%) were women. Factors associated with quality of life in SSc were functional disability (β = 2.854, p < 0.001) and anxiety (β = 0.404, p < 0.001). This model with two factors (functional disability and anxiety) explained 56.7% of the variance in patients with diffuse SSc and 73.2% in those with localized SSc. Conclusions: Functional disability and anxiety are significantly associated with quality of life in SSc. Interventions aimed at improving either of these factors may contribute towards improving the quality of life of people with SSc

Remission and low disease activity in Polish patients with systemic lupus erythematosus – real-life, five-year follow-up outcomes

OBJECTIVE: Remission in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS) are associated with less organ damage and thus create new perspectives for effective damage-limiting treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of remission defined by The Definition of Remission In SLE (DORIS) and of LLDAS as well as their predictors in the Polish SLE cohort. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this retrospective study data were collected on patients with SLE that achieved at least one year of DORIS remission or LLDAS and were followed up for 5 years. Clinical and demographic data were gathered; DORIS and LLDAS predictors were determined by univariate regression analysis. RESULTS: The full analysis set included 80 patients at baseline and 70 at follow-up. Over half of patients with SLE (39; 55.7%) fulfilled the DORIS remission criteria. In this group, 53.8% (21) of patients were in remission on-treatment and 46.1% (18) in remission off-treatment. LLDAS was fulfilled by a cohort of 43 (61.4%) patients with SLE. Among patients that achieved DORIS or LLDAS at follow-up, 77% were not treated with glucocorticoids (GCs). The most important predictors for DORIS and LLDAS off-treatment were mean SLEDAI-2K score with cut-off of ≤8.0, treatment with mycophenolate mofetil or antimalarials, and the age at disease onset above 43 years. CONCLUSIONS: Remission and LLDAS are achievable goals in treating SLE as over half of study patients fulfilled the DORIS remission and LLDAS criteria. The identified predictors for DORIS and LLDAS indicate the importance of effective therapy leading to reduction of GC use

Development and validation of COVID-19 Radiological Risk Score (COVID-RRS): a multivariable radiological score to estimate the in-hospital mortality risk in COVID-19 patients

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate in-hospital mortality risk score comprising radiological aberrances in chest computed tomography (CT) performed on admission. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Single-center, longitudinal cohort study in adult patients admitted with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to our ward. Patients were followed-up during hospitalization until discharge or death. Eligibility criteria for the study comprised positive real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test (RT-PCR) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and ground-glass opacities in chest CT. In-hospital death was the outcome of interest. Radiological, laboratory, and clinical data were analyzed. Radiological determinants of mortality were used as variables in multivariate logistic regression analysis, and results were used to build a radiological risk score. RESULTS: 371 patients were enrolled in development and validation cohorts (181 and 190 respectively), with a total of 47 non-survivors. Univariate analysis data determined 12 predictive factors (nine risk and three protective). In multivariate analysis, we developed COVID-RRS (COVID-19 Radiological Risk Score) - a radiological score predicting in-hospital COVID-19 mortality risk comprising estimated lung involvement percentage, pleural effusion, and domination of consolidation-type changes in chest CT. Our score was superior in the prediction of COVID-19 mortality to the percentage of lung involvement alone, Chest Computed Tomography Severity Score (CTSS), and Total Severity Score (TSS) in both groups with AUC of 0.910 and 0.902, respectively (p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Additional imaging features independently contribute to COVID-19 mortality risk. Our model comprising lung involvement estimation, pleural effusion, and domination of consolidations performed significantly better than scores based on the extent of the changes alone. COVID-RRS is a simple, reliable, and ready-to-use tool for clinical practice