A soon-to-be published study in Gastroenterology found a common therapy for inflammatory bowel disease may be associated with more severe cases of COVID-19.
Researchers from New York City-based Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chapel Hill-based University of North Carolina School of Medicine established a joint IBD and COVID-19 registry to track how COVID-19 is affecting IBD patients. The registry currently has 528 patients from 33 countries.
Increased age, comorbidities and corticosteroids are all associated with IBD patients with severe cases of COVID-19. However, TNF antagonist therapies did not appear to be connected with severe COVID-19.
Erica Brenna, MD, a pediatric gastroenterology fellow at Chapel Hill-based UNC Children's Hospital, commented on the registry, saying: "We established the registry to better characterize the clinical course of COVID-19 within the IBD patient population and evaluate the association between demographics, clinical characteristics, and IBD treatments on COVID-19 outcomes."