The mortality and acute complications of large vessel vasculitis patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the US: a nationwide inpatient sample analysis (2020).

COVID-19 was an emerging pandemic in 2020 which resulted in millions of deaths worldwide. It has been known that COVID-19 can cause secondary vasculitis. However, the impact of large vessel vasculitis, giant cell arteritis (GCA) and Takayasu (TAK), on COVID-19 infection is not known. This retrospective analysis used data from the US National Inpatient Survey 2020. Patients of all ages hospitalized due to COVID-19 in 2020 were identified on the database. A primary diagnosis of COVID-19 and a secondary diagnosis of LVV were included. Characteristics of patients, comorbidities, and clinical outcomes were compared. The primary outcome was the mortality rate. Secondary outcomes included resource utilization and acute in-hospital complications of COVID-19 infection. Multivariate logistic regression and univariate logistic regression analyses were conducted, with P values < 0.05 considered statistically significant. A total of 675 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had concurrent LVV. Patients with LVV were older (73.70 vs 62.61; P < 0.001) and more likely female (75.00% vs 48.20%; p < 0.001). There is no difference in in-hospital mortality of COVID patients with and without LVV (aOR 0.95, p = 0.834), GCA (aOR 0.94, p = 0.827), or TAK (aOR 2.30, p = 0.394). There is an increase in the in-hospital risk of developing acute MI in COVID patients with LVV (aOR = 1.54; p = 0.04) but not with subgroup GCA and TAK. There were no significant differences in resource utilization and other acute in-hospital complications. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients with LVV and GCA were more likely to develop acute MI than those without. Further studies are required to minimize confounders to better explore the causal relationship of COVID-19 and LVV.