June 23, 2020

Decrease in Acute Coronary Syndrome Presentations during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Upstate New York

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Clinical Characteristics and Health Care Setting

• A multi-center study found admissions for acute coronary syndrome among COVID-19 negative patients dropped by 41% during March/April 2020 (n=67), compared with the same period in 2019 (n=113). A greater proportion of patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction presented >24 hours after onset of symptoms in 2020 than in 2019 (36% vs. 27%, p=0.033). The authors conclude that if this decline is due to patients avoiding potentially beneficial cardiac care, this could indicate an increase in future complications of myocardial infarctions. As the total number of patients seen in each year was small some of this could be explained by normal year-to-year variation. 

Braiteh et al. (May 2020). Decrease in Acute Coronary Syndrome Presentations during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Upstate New York. American Heart Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2020.05.009