No abstract

Studies have described clinical features of patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). However, limited data concerning the clinical characteristics of the Italian deaths are available. We aim to describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of 320 deceased from the Italian experience. We retrospectively collected all consecutive nonsurvivor patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection admitted to the Emergency Rooms (ERs) Piacenza Hospital Network during the first month of COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Clinical history, comorbidities, laboratory findings and treatment were recorded for each patient. A total of 1050 patients with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia were admitted to the ERs between 24 February and 22 March 2020. Three hundred and twenty (30.5%) patients died with a median age of 78.0 years, 205 (64%) non-survivors were above 65 years old, 230 (71.9%) were male. Non-survivor patients showed frequently several coexisting medical conditions, with hypertension being the most common comorbidity (235 patients, 73.4%). The in-hospital mortality did not change during the progression of the pandemic. In this retrospective Italian study, most of COVID-19 deceased patients were elderly male aged over than 65 years. Hypertension was the most common coexisting disease. In-hospital mortality was high and showed no variation during the first month of the COVID-19 italian epidemic.

The clinical and prognostic importance of functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) in heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) has been highly debated. This study aims to define FMR linkage to cardiovascular (CV) outcomes and the interplay with left atrial (LA) function in a prospective cohort of consecutive HFrEF outpatients.

Association of renin-angiotensin system inhibitors with risk of death in patients with hypertension (HTN) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not well characterized. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of patients with HTN and COVID-19 with respect to different chronic antihypertensive drug intake. We performed a retrospective, observational study from a large cohort of patients with HTN and with a laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection admitted to the Emergency Rooms (ER) of the Piacenza Hospital network from February 21, 2020 to March 20, 2020. There were 1050 patients admitted to the ERs of the Piacenza Hospital network with COVID-19. HTN was present in 590 patients [median age, 76.2 years (IQR 68.2-82.6)]; 399 (66.1%) patients were male. Of them, 248 patients were chronically treated with ACEi, 181 with ARBs, and 161 with other drugs (O-drugs) including beta blockers, diuretics and calcium-channel inhibitors. With respect to the antihypertensive use, there was no difference between comorbid conditions. During a follow-up of 38 days (IQR 7.0-46.0), 256 patients (43.4%) died, without any difference stratifying for antihypertensive drugs. Of them, 107 (43.1%) were in ACEi group vs 67 (37%) in ARBs group vs 82 (50.7%) in O-drugs group, (log-rank test: p = 0.066). In patients with HTN and COVID-19, neither ACEi nor ARBs were independently associated with mortality. After adjusting for potential confounders in risk prediction, the rate of death was similar. Our data confirm Specialty Societal recommendations, suggesting that treatment with ACEIs or ARBs should not be discontinued because of COVID-19. Keywords COVID-19 • SARS-CoV-2 • Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors • Mortality • Hypertension Abbreviations ACE2 Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 ACEi Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors ARBs Angiotensin-receptor blockers COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 ER Emergency rooms HTN Hypertension O-drugs Other drugs RAS Renin-angiotensin system RT-PCR Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 Luca Rossi and Alessandro Malagoli equally contributed to the manuscript and should be considered as shared first authors.

Background Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exhibit high thrombotic risk. The evidence on a potential independent prognostic role of antiplatelet treatment in those patients is limited. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of pre-admission low-dose acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in a wide series of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Methods This cohort study included 984 COVID-19 patients stratified according to ASA intake before hospitalization: ASA + ( n = 253) and ASA − ( n = 731). Patients were included in ASA + group if they received it daily in the 7 days before admission. 213 (83%) were on ASA 100 mg daily. Primary endpoint was a composite of in-hospital death and/or need for respiratory support upgrade, secondary endpoints were in-hospital death and need for respiratory support upgrade. Results Mean age was 72 [62; 81] with 69% of male patients. ASA + patients were significantly older, with higher prevalence of comorbidities. No significant differences regarding the degree of respiratory dysfunction were observed. At 30-day Kaplan-Meier analysis, ASA + patients had higher survival free from the primary endpoint and need for respiratory support upgrade, conversely in-hospital death did not significantly differ between groups. At multivariate analysis ASA intake was independently associated with a lower probability of reaching primary endpoint (HR 0.697, 95% C.I. 0.525–0.924; p = 0.012). Conclusions In COVID-19 patients undergoing hospitalization, pre-admission treatment with ASA is associated with better in-hospital outcome, mainly driven by less respiratory support upgrade.