Background: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are thought to be at greater risk of severe COVID-19 illness and associated complications due to a combination of inherent aberrant immune responses, immunosuppressive medications and co-morbidities.

Objectives: To review COVID-19 infections, hospitalisation and recovery in a real-world cohort of patients with moderate to severe SLE and high immunosuppressant use.

Methods: The British Isles Lupus Assessment Group Biologics Registry (BILAG-BR) is a national prospective registry of lupus patients from the UK (2010-21) requiring significant immunosuppressive therapies. Patients from the BILAG-BR were invited to complete a paper or online questionnaire which consisted of 17 questions to assess prior COVID-19 infection and their recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questionnaires were completed between 9 ^th Oct 2021 and 7 ^th Jan 2022. Responses were linked with data collected in the BILAG-BR. Mortality data were collected from study centres and the Office of National Statistics from Dec 2019-Jan 2022.

Results: Data were collected from the first 202/1268 patients to respond. Patients were predominately female (186, 92.1%), had a median age of 51 (IQR 38-61) years and were from 37 UK centres. Previous therapy included rituximab (165, 81.7%), belimumab (33, 16.3%) and cyclophosphamide (54, 26.7%). In the past 12 months, over two thirds of patients (138, 68.3%) had received oral prednisolone (current median dose 5mg [IQR 5-8mg] daily), and almost a third had received parental steroids (60, 29.7%).

Self-reported COVID-19 diagnosis occurred in 48 (23.8%) patients, of whom 20 reported a positive test. Eleven (55%) patients reported testing positive for COVID-19 after being vaccinated. Median reported recovery was 80% (IQR 60-100%), with subjective full recovery reported in 30% of patients (6/20) who had received a positive test. Of the 20 patients who tested positive for COVID-19, 5 were receiving belimumab, 1 tocilizumab, and in the prior 12 months, 2 had received cyclophosphamide and 4 rituximab.

Of all respondents, three individuals were hospitalised with COVID-19, and one required an ICU admission. Of those hospitalised, two patients were unvaccinated prior to COVID-19 infection, and the other patient had received rituximab and cyclophosphamide prior to vaccination. Four/1387 patients registered in the BILAG-BR were confirmed to have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Conclusion: In this cohort of moderate-to-severe SLE patients there was a low incidence of COVID-19 infection. Despite this, full recovery from PCR or lateral flow test proven COVID-19 infection was seen in only a third of patients. This raises concerns over the potential risk of long COVID in patients with SLE and warrants further investigation.

Acknowledgements: Submitted on behalf of the BILAG-biologics register

Disclosure of Interests: Sarah Dyball Grant/research support from: UCB and Eli Lilly, Mia Rodziewicz Grant/research support from: UCB, Emily Sutton: None declared, Ben Parker Speakers bureau: Eli Lilly and Roche, Consultant of: Fresenius-Kabi and AbbVie, Grant/research support from: Genzyme/Sanofi and GSK, Ian N. Bruce Speakers bureau: AstraZeneca, GSK and UCB, Consultant of: AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, GSK, Merck Serono, UCB and ILTOO, Grant/research support from: Genzyme/Sanofi, GSK, Roche and UCB