key: cord-0960464-8910wsir
authors: Tamariz, Leonardo; Bast, Elizabeth; Abad, Maria; Klimas, Nancy; Caralis, Pat; Palacio, Ana
title: Post COVID‐19 joint pain: Preliminary report of the relationship with antinuclear antibodies and inflammation
date: 2022-04-09
journal: J Med Virol
DOI: 10.1002/jmv.27753
sha: 628220fac95ba05a21ca77ee8c1e060b59ba8bf0
doc_id: 960464
cord_uid: 8910wsir

This case series of 15 patients shows in a cross-sectional design the association between antinuclear antibodies and joint pain in post covid syndrome. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Post-COVID syndrome includes a variety of symptoms after a SARS-CoV2 infection. 1 Close to 25% of the post-COVID patients have muscle or joint pain and there are case series reporting a prevalence of up to 50% of antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) in acute critically ill COVID-19 patients. 2 Our aim is to present a preliminary comparison of post-covid patients and their self-reported joint and muscle pain, their inflammatory markers, and ANAs.

We conducted a cross-sectional study of the initial patients evaluated at our post-COVID clinic. To be included in the post-COVID clinic patients had to have a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 and have symptoms 3 months after the initial COVID-19 diagnosis.

We collected post-COVID symptoms using the CDC chronic fatigue symptom inventory as self-reported by patients. The CDC inventory collects a battery of 22 symptoms and has been validated in chronic fatigue. 3 We report the presence of joint pain, along with the frequency and severity, as well as the contribution of the symptom to feeling ill.

We report information on C-reactive protein (CRP) and ANAs. ANAs were measured using immunofluorescence and for positive patients, we reported the pattern and the titer. We also collected if patients had a previous positive or negative screen. A positive ANA screen was defined as a positive test regardless of the pattern and titter.

We included the first 15 patients who enrolled in our post-COVID clinic. Table 1 reports the baseline characteristics of the included patients. The majority of patients were female, belonged to a minority group, 20% were hospitalized for COVID-19, 26% were healthcare workers and were seen in the post covid clinic around 7 months after the initial infection. Table 1 shows the entire cohort stratified by having a positive ANA screen. The prevalence of a positive ANA screen was 53% (95% confidence interval 

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U R E 1 Association between joint pain and ANA screen in post COVID syndrome

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