Patients treated for an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) during the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic faced a heightened risk of developing heart failure, according to findings presented virtually at Heart Failure 2021, an online scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology.
This new analysis stands as the latest look at the pandemic’s massive impact on healthcare systems—and patient outcomes—all over the world.
The study’s authors tracked data from 269 consecutive AMI patients treated in Lithuania from March 11 to April 20, 2020. All patients received a negative test results and underwent invasive treatment. The team also explored data from patients treated during the same period in 2019.
Overall, there was a 34% decline in heart attack admissions during that early stage of the pandemic. After six months, 22% of patients had been admitted to the hospital for decompensated heart failure; that number was just 2.5% in 2019.
Study author Ali Aldujeli, MD, MSc, of the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, noted that different factors may have led to these discrepancies. Media coverage focused on the spread of COVID-19, for instance, could have caused many patients to delay receiving care until their condition was significantly worse than it was when they first noticed the problem.
Also, he added, patient care included much more delays during the pandemic than there were in prior years.
“Heart attack patients waited an average of 14 hours to get help during the pandemic, with some delaying for nearly two days,” Aldujeli said in a statement. “That compares to a delay of six hours in the previous year. This gap may have been one contributor to the higher incidence of subsequent heart failure.”
Also, Aldujeli added, these statistics highlight the importance of treating AMI patients quickly during a pandemic.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.