key: cord-332940-vb9ds64o authors: Cho, Jiacai; Kandane‐Rathnayake, Rangi; Louthrenoo, Worawit; Hoi, Alberta; Golder, Vera; Chen, Yi‐Hsing; Luo, Shue Fen; Wu, Yeong‐Jian Jan; Hamijoyo, Laniyati; Lau, Chak Sing; Navarra, Sandra; Zamora, Leonid; Tee, Michael; Flora, Angelito; Li, Zhan‐Guo; An, Yuan; Sockalingam, Sargunan; Katsumata, Yasuhiro; Harigai, Masayoshi; Hao, Yanjie; Zhang, Zhuoli; Kikuchi, Jun; Takeuchi, Tsutomu; Basnayake, Duminda; Goldblatt, Fiona; Chan, Madelynn; Ng, Kristine Pek Ling; Bae, Sang‐Cheol; Oon, Shereen; O’Neill, Sean; Gibson, Kathy; Kumar, Sunil; Law, Annie Hui Nee; Tugnet, Nicola; Tanaka, Yoshiya; Nikpour, Mandy; Morand, Eric; Lateef, Aisha title: COVID‐19 infection in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: Data from the Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration date: 2020-08-25 journal: Int J Rheum Dis DOI: 10.1111/1756-185x.13937 sha: doc_id: 332940 cord_uid: vb9ds64o nan As COVID-19 ravages healthcare systems worldwide, cases of infection among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are increasingly reported. While there had been 2 reports on incident hospitalized cases from the US and France, 1 infection and the patient was found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 on screening. Although she was asymptomatic, her clinical course was complicated by severe thrombocytopenia (nadir 5 × 10 9 /L) which required intravenous immunoglobulin and prednisolone 20 mg daily. The thrombocytopenia was attributed to SLE flare as its severity was assessed to be out of proportion to her asymptomatic COVID-19 infection. In addition, hypocomplementemia was observed. Platelet count eventually improved and she was discharged. Patient 2 was a 32-year-old Filipino woman with active lupus nephritis who was treated with hydroxychloroquine, mycophenolate mofetil and prednisolone 30 mg daily. She resided 5 hours away from her lupus center and had a history of poor treatment adherence. During the pandemic, only phone consultations were performed, during one of which she informed her rheumatologist that she had been initiated on hemodialysis at a local hospital for deteriorating renal function. Subsequently, her rheumatologist was informed that she had passed away from COVID-19 pneumonia at the provincial hospital. Details surrounding her COVID-19 infection were not accessible. Patient 3 was a 29-year-old Filipino woman with SLE (on hydroxychloroquine, azathioprine and low-dose prednisolone), hypertensive heart disease and chronic kidney disease who presented with bilateral COVID-19 pneumonia and peripheral edema. Concurrently, she was found to have active lupus nephritis which required increase in prednisolone to 50 mg daily. She was discharged when pneumonia and lupus nephritis improved. In summary, we report three cases of COVID-19 infection in SLE patients from the Asia Pacific, of which one was fatal. Notably, all three patients had active SLE which required escalation of treatment just before, or during treatment for COVID-19 infection, in contrast to reports from France. 2 Importantly, pa- The authors declare no competing interests. AL, RKR, EM and CJC contributed to the conception or design of the work. All authors contributed to the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data. CJC, RKR and AL drafted the work. COVID-19 and systemic lupus erythematosus: a case series Clinical course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a series of 17 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus under long-term treatment with hydroxychloroquine Development of the Asia Pacific Lupus Collaboration cohort No SLE with COVID-19 in Hong Kong: the effect of masking?