Background: COVID-19 pandemic has affected healthcare systems worldwide. Resources are being shifted and potentially jeopardize safety of non-COVID-19 patients with comorbidities. Our aim was to investigate the impact of national lockdown and SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on percutaneous treatment of coronary artery disease in Poland.
Methods: Data on patients who underwent percutaneous coronary procedures (angiography and/or percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI]) were extracted for March 13-May 13, 2020 from a national PCI database (ORPKI Registry) during the first month of national lockdown and compared with analogous time period in 2019.
Results: Of 163 cardiac catheterization centers in Poland, 15 (9.2%) were indefinitely or temporarily closed down due to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. There were nine physicians (9 of 544; 1.7%) who were infected with SARS-CoV-2. There were 13,750 interventional cardiology procedures performed in Poland in the analyzed time period. In 66% of cases an acute coronary syndrome was diagnosed, and in the remaining 34% it was an elective procedure for the chronic coronary syndrome in comparison to 50% in 2019 (p < .001). There were 362 patients (2.6% of all) with COVID-19 confirmed/suspected who were treated in interventional cardiology centers and 145 with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) diagnosis (6% of all STEMIs).
Conclusions: Due to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic there was an absolute reduction in the number of interventional procedures both acute and elective in comparison to 2019 and a significant shift into acute procedures. COVID-19 confirmed/suspected patients do not differ in terms of procedural and baseline characteristics and reveal similar outcomes when treated with percutaneous coronary interventions.
Keywords: COVID-19; acute coronary syndrome; interventional cardiology.
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