BIOMARKERS, GENETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY, AND IMAGING CORRELATES OF JOINT AND SYSTEMIC INVOLVEMENT IN POST-COVID RHEUMATIC DISEASES

Rheumatic diseases are characterized by heterogeneous clinical presentations driven by complex interactions between immune dysregulation, genetic susceptibility, endothelial injury, and environmental exposures. The COVID-19 pandemic has added a new layer of complexity by acting as a systemic trigger that amplifies latent inflammatory, autoimmune, and degenerative processes. Post-COVID-19 conditions are increasingly recognized as modifiers of disease activity, severity, and progression in ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, reactive arthritis, osteoarthritis, allergic vasculitis, systemic sclerosis, and comorbid cardiovascular diseases.