TY - JOUR T1 - Incidence and Clinical Course of COVID-19 in Patients with Connective Tissue Diseases: A Descriptive Observational Analysis JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol SP - 1296 LP - 1296 DO - 10.3899/jrheum.200507 VL - 47 IS - 8 AU - ENNIO GIULIO FAVALLI AU - ELENA AGAPE AU - ROBERTO CAPORALI Y1 - 2020/08/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/47/8/1296.abstract N2 - To the Editor:The outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019 in China has very quickly become a global health emergency, with almost 2 million infected patients worldwide1. Along with the spread of the pandemic, there has been growing concern about the management of fragile patients with rheumatic conditions. There are still very few data available on this aspect. In particular, subjects affected by connective tissue diseases (CTD) are known to have an increased infectious risk compared to the healthy population because of a general impairment of the immune system intrinsic to the autoimmune disease itself, the iatrogenic effect linked to the use of immunosuppressive drugs, and the high number of comorbidities that often complicate the clinical picture2,3. On the other hand, the progressive increase in the knowledge about the pathogenesis of the infection is paving the way for the use of certain drugs common in rheumatology to also treat COVID-194.As rheumatologists operating in one of the major epicenters … Address correspondence to Dr. E.G. Favalli, Division of Clinical Rheumatology, ASST Gaetano Pini-CTO Institute, Via Gaetano Pini 9, 20122 Milan, Italy. E-mail address: enniofavalli{at}me.com ER -