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The following is a summary of “Incidence of serious respiratory tract infections and associated characteristics in a population exposed to immunosuppressive therapies: a register-based population study,” published in the October 2024 issue of Infectious Disease by Etienne et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to determine the population exposed to immunosuppressive therapies and to assess the incidence of serious respiratory tract infections (SRI).
They analyzed data from a representative sample of French healthcare claims from 01/01/2014 to 12/31/2019. An exposure to immunosuppressive therapy was defined by drug dispensation through community pharmacies or hospitals, and SRI diagnosis was based on ICD-10 codes from hospitalization records; an estimation of standardized SRI incidence rates was performed, and a nested case-control analysis was used to study the characteristics associated with SRI.
The results showed 24,122 individuals exposed to immunosuppressive therapies, with 1,559 developing SRI, resulting in a standardized incidence rate of 1,398 per 1,000,000 person-years. In this population, the risk of SRI was associated with a history of cancer (OR 2.68, 95% CI 2.24–3.21; P < 0.001), chronic respiratory disease (2.62, 95% CI 2.17–3.16; P < 0.001), end-stage renal failure (2.38, 95% CI 1.37–4.13; P = 0.003), neurodegenerative diseases (1.52, 95% CI 1.07–2.17; P = 0.026), diabetes (1.44, 95% CI 1.14–1.82; P < 0.001), psychiatric diseases (1.27, 95% CI 1.06–1.52; P < 0.001), and cardiovascular diseases (1.26, 95%CI 1.04–1.52; P = 0.002). Compared to corticosteroids alone, the risk of SRI was lower in individuals treated with conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (csDMARD) only (0.44, 95% CI 0.25–0.78; P < 0.001).
They concluded that in the population exposed to immunosuppressive therapies, a history of chronic disease was associated with an increased risk of SRI, which was lower in those receiving csDMARD alone than corticosteroids alone.
Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-024-10039-2