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Acute cardiology

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on emergency medical system and management strategies in patients with acute coronary syndrome.

Kohei Saiin, Sakae Takenaka, Toshiyuki Nagai, Akinori Takahashi, Yoshifumi Mizuguchi, Takao Konishi, Toshihisa Anzai, Daisuke Hotta, Mitsunori Kamigaki, Seiji Yamazaki and 10 more

Scientific Reports · 2023-03-29 · Observational study

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Abstract

The global coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is associated with reduced rate of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, there were a few data showing how emergency medical system (EMS) and management strategies for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) changed during the pandemic. We sought to clarify changes on characteristics, treatments, and in-hospital mortality of patients with ACS transported via EMS between pre- and post-pandemic. We examined consecutive 656 patients with ACS admitted to Sapporo City ACS Network Hospitals between June 2018 and November 2021. The patients were divided into pre- and post-pandemic groups. The number of ACS hospitalizations declined significantly during the pandemic (proportional reduction 66%, coefficient -0.34, 95% CI -0.50 to -0.18, p < 0.001). The median time from an EMS call to hospital was significantly longer in post-pandemic group than in pre-pandemic group (32 [26-39] vs. 29 [25-36] min, p = 0.008). There were no significant differences in the proportion of patients with ACS receiving PCI, and in-hospital mortality between the groups. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on EMS and management in patients with ACS. Although a significant decline was observed in ACS hospitalizations, the proportion of patients with ACS receiving emergency PCI remained during the pandemic.

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Tags

COVID-19 pandemic · Time intervals

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