부산대학교 도서관

Background: In late December 2019, COVID-19 has been reported in China. This study was conducted to investigate the epidemiological findings and clinical outcomes of patients with inflammatory and non-inflammatory connective tissue diseases infected with COVID-19 omicron variant. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the medical files of 159 connective tissue patients infected with COVID-19 Omicron variant referred to Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Kashan, Iran, were examined from winter 2021 to spring 2022. A checklist containing the epidemiological characteristics and clinical outcomes of the patients was completed and data analysis was done by SPSS software. Results: Most of the patients were women (84.4%) and the mean age of the patients was 51.85 years. The most common underlying diseases were diabetes (18.9%) and hypertension (13.8%). Among the patients, 44.7% had rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis and lupus were in the next order with 15.7% and 10.7%, respectively. The most common clinical symptoms were myalgia (84.9%) and fever (78.6%). Also, 32.7% of patients had lymphopenia and 74.8% had high CRP. In addition, the results of chest CT scans were reported as moderate to severe in 42.7% of the patients. In addition, COVID-19 was severe in 41.5% of patients. Finally, Five patients (1.3%) died. Conclusion: The clinical and laboratory findings related to the Omicron variant in the present study are similar to other variants of COVID-19. Nevertheless, the findings of lung CT scan images and mortality in the present study are higher than the delta variant of COVID-19.