Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in autoimmune hepatitis: a lesson from immunosuppressed patients

Chronic immunosuppression is associated with increased and more severe viral infections. However, little is known about the association between immunosuppression and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Our aim was to describe the clinical course of patients with immunosuppressed autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection in Italy. Our study is a case series of patients with AIH treated with immunosuppression, who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in March 2020 during the outbreak of COVID-19. Ten patients from seven different hospitals in Italy were diagnosed with COVID-19 during the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in March 2020. Seven subjects were female (70%), and age ranged from 27 to 73 years. Before the onset of SARS-CoV-2 infection, all patients were taking immunosuppressive therapy for AIH, and eight of them were on biochemical remission. Two other patients had recent acute onset of their AIH, and consequently started high-dose steroids, as per induction protocol. All patients had a respiratory syndrome and a positive nasal swab for SARS-CoV-2. Five patients developed a computed tomography-confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia. Six subjects received a combination of antiretroviral and antimalarial drugs. In seven patients, the dosage of immunosuppressive medication was changed. Liver enzymes were repeated during SARS-CoV-2 infection in all hospitalized cases; they remained within the normal range in all cases, and improved in the two acute cases treated with high-dose steroids. The clinical outcome was comparable to the reported cases occurring in non-immunosuppressed subjects.Conclusion:Patients under immunosuppressive therapy for AIH developing COVID-19 show a disease course presumptively similar to that reported in the non-immunosuppressed population. These data might aid in medical decisions when dealing with SARS-CoV-2 infection in immunocompromised patients.