When COVID-19 patients are discharged, they still face a heightened risk of experiencing a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE), according to new research out of the UK.
“With over 3 million people in the UK having tested positive for COVID-19 at the time of writing, and many more who had the disease but never received a test, our findings suggest that the long-term burden of COVID-related morbidity on hospitals and broader healthcare systems is likely to be substantial,’” wrote first author Daniel Ayoubkhani, a principal statistician for the Office for National Statistics in the UK, and colleagues.
Ayoubkhani et al. examined data from more than 47,000 COVID-19 patients who were discharged by August 31, 2020. Patients were then matched with controls who had been hospitalized from January 2019 to September 2020 and did not receive a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Overall, the team found, hospital readmissions and patient deaths were both more likely among COVID-19 patients than non-COVID patients. In fact, more than one in ten patients went on to die after being discharged. The MACE rate was also “significantly elevated” for COVID-19 patients. The rates of respiratory events and diabetes also increased for that group when compared to patients who did not have COVID-19.
Also, post-discharge adverse events were more common for white patients and patients over the age of 70 years old—but “younger and ethnic minority individuals faced greater relative risks” when researchers looked closer at what is expected to occur to those patient populations.
“Individuals discharged from hospital following acute COVID-19 face elevated rates of mortality, readmission and multi-organ dysfunction compared with the background levels that exist for these individuals, and the relative increase in risk is neither confined to the elderly nor uniform across ethnic groups,” the authors concluded. “Urgent research is required to further understand the risk factors for PCS, so that treatment provision can be better targeted to demographically and clinically at-risk populations.”
The team’s research has been shared on the medRxiv server as it awaits peer review. The full text is available here.
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.