COVID-19 pneumonia in a wide Italian cohort of sarcoidosis patients

Introduction: At the beginning of coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, there was concern that infected sarcoidosis patients, likewise other patients with chronic lung disease, could be at higher risk of a poor outcome and death. Moreover it was supposed that Sarcoidosis infected patients could be at higher risk of poor outcome ùs as a consequence of comorbidities secondary to chronic glucocorticoid treatment. Methods:In order to determine whether sarcoidosis patients really showed high risk of poor outcome and death during COVID-19 pandemic, an electronic survey of the impact of COVID-19 on sarcoidosis patients was proposed together with the University of Cincinnati to the Italian Sarcoidosis association Amici contro la Sarcoidosi (ACSI). Results: The clinical features of 1542 sarcoidosis patients, were anonymously collected by telephone survey and online questionnaire from April to June 2020). In this group,32 patients (2.1%) declared that they had contracted SARS-CoV-19 infection. 6 patients of them (19%) were hospitalized (among these, 2 patients were admitted to intensive care unit). 4 out of 32 patients (12%) were health care workers, while 15 (47%) reported having comorbidities and 14 out of 32 (44%) have a form of pulmonary sarcoidosis only, 12 (37%) have both pulmonary and extrathoracic involvement. Contrary to initial concerns about prognosis, our results suggest that patients with sarcoidosis did not have an increased risk of adverse outcome or death from COVID-19 infection compared to the general population. Almost half of our patients with sarcoidosis and SARS-CoV-2 had at least one of the following diseases: hypertension, asthma, COPD, diabetes and obesity. The subgroup of sarcoidosis patients developing COVID infection in our sarcoidosis cohort was characterized by lung involvement, high prevalence of comorbidities and treatment suggesting that these clinical parameters may be potential risk factors of developing COVID-19.