Do Those With Neuro-Autoimmune Disease Carry a Higher Burden of Disease?

Objective To investigate the burden of disease and their prognosis amongst patients with neuro-autoimmune disease (NAD).

Background NAD has been shown to increase overall mortality and early death among patients. However, the overall burden of disease in NAD patients has not yet been fully characterized.

Design/Methods A retrospective analysis on 34464 patients hospitalized at a tertiary care center in a major metropolitan area was conducted. The outcomes compared included the prevalence of comorbidities, high risk comorbidities, and rheumatoid arthritis and/or lupus (RAL) among patients with and without neuro-autoimmune disease (NAD and nNAD). The outcomes of the initial disposition after discharge, length of hospital stay, ICU admission, and death among patients with comorbidities and with or without neuro-autoimmune disease (cNAD and cnNAD) was also determined.

Results There is no significant difference in the level of comorbidity (53% vs 54%) or high risk comorbidities (19% vs 24%) between patients in NAD and nNAD, respectively (p > 0.05). 4.7% of NAD and 2.2% of nNAD patients had RAL (p < 0.02). The mortality was 5% in cNAD and 4.3% in ncNAD (p > 0.05). ICU admissions was 16% in cNAD and 20% in ncNAD (p > 0.05). 42% of patients in cNAD and 72% in ncNAD were discharged home (p < 0.0001). The average length of stay was 10 and 6.7 days for patients in cNAD and ncNAD, respectively (p < 0.01).

Conclusions These results suggest that NAD may not affect the overall burden of disease in patients but may increase the prevalence of RAL. Furthermore, comorbidity status may correlate with length of stay and disposition in patients with NAD.