June 2, 2021

Changes in Patterns of Hospital Visits for Acute Myocardial Infarction or Ischemic Stroke During COVID-19 Surges

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

Keywords (Tags): public health

• Hospitalization rates for heart attack declined up to 41% during the COVID-19 surge in Spring 2020 (2.82 to 1.66 cases per 100,000 person-weeks) but subsequently returned to 2019 rates, according to an analysis of weekly hospitalization rates of persons presenting to Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) between January 2020 to January 2021. Heart attack was defined as an acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction in combination with cardiac biomarkers. Weekly rates of stroke alerts (hospitalization for stroke in combination with a pre-defined pathway of immediate neurologic consultation and neuroimaging) followed a similar pattern of decline during the spring. Despite larger increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations during the same time, no significant declines in heart attack hospitalization rates were observed during the COVID-19 surges in the summer and winter of 2020-2021.

Solomon et al. (June 2, 2021). Changes in Patterns of Hospital Visits for Acute Myocardial Infarction or Ischemic Stroke During COVID-19 Surges. JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.8414