• Adriana Carrá, Carlos Vrech, Gustavo Valitutti, Carla Taiano, Marcelo González Della Valle, and Raúl Bozzo.
• Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires, Argentina. E-mail: acarra@hbritanico.com.ar.
• Medicina (B Aires). 2023 Jan 1; 83 (1): 596459-64.

IntroductionThere is limited local information on the risk of severe COVID-19 infection in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who are receiving disease-modifying treatments (DMT). The aim of the study was to assess the impact of COVID-19 disease (severity and lethality) in MS patients receiving DMT.MethodsThe study was performed on a prospective cohort with EM. We included 111 patients with MS and a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 treated with DMT and followed up until the resolution of COVID-19.ResultsA total of six patients (5.4%; 95% CI: 2-11.4%) developed severe COVID-19 defined as requiring hospitalization in intensive care unit or death and three died (crude case fatality rate of 2.7%; 95% CI: 1.1-4.3%). The age-adjusted case fatality rate was 1.5% (95% CI: 0.6-2.4%). The factor that was independently associated with severe COVID-19 was age (OR 1.1; CI 1.0-1.3; p < 0.05) with a trend in the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) = 6 (OR 6.2; CI 0.6-56.4; p = 0.10).ConclusionThe lethality due to COVID-19 in MS patients is low, and severity was significantly associated with age and showed a trend with EDSS = 6.

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