How the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted 6-month outcomes for heart attack patients

Also, pain-to-door times and troponin I levels were “significantly higher” for patients treated during the pandemic. The higher pain-to-door times seem related to the fact that patients avoided treatment during the earliest stages of the pandemic. This was a well-documented trend during that time, one that has been reported by researchers all over the world.

In addition, the study’s authors wrote, there was a “significant decrease” in post-revascularization ejection fraction among AMI patients treated during the pandemic.

“This is likely attributed to a prolonged ischemic state, as evidenced by longer pain-to-door time and door-to-wire time,” wrote lead author Ali Aldujeli MD, MSc, a cardiologist at Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, and colleagues. “This is consistent with results from previous reports, which revealed that longer ischemia duration is associated with greater infarct size and lower ejection fraction levels.”

Patients treated during the pandemic, meanwhile, had worse left ventricular systolic function and more readmissions due to decompensated acute heart failure. And NSTEMI patients saw their risk of being hospitalized for heart failure increase significantly, though that finding “less amplified” for STEMI patients.

Read the full study here.