Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there have been anecdotal reports of a reduction in non-COVID-19 emergent diseases, including ischemic stroke 1 and myocardial infarction (MI), 2,3 and a general drop in emergency department volumes. 4 The concern is that patients, wary of contact with individuals with COVID-19, are reluctant to seek care, even in the face of acute, life-threatening conditions. Using data from 2 academic medical centers, we assessed the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with the incidence of 5 medical emergencies: acute MI, ischemic stroke, nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (ntSAH), ectopic pregnancy, and appendicitis. Methods | The online databases of Stanford University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center (NYP) were queried using International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes to determine the number of patients with each diagnosis per month. Diagnoses of acute MI were extracted with ICD-10 code I21, ischemic stroke with I63, ntSAH with I60, ectopic pregnancy with O00, and appendicitis with K35. The monthly diagnosis total was divided by the number of days in each month to arrive at an average daily count. For acute MI, ischemic stroke, and ntSAH, patients younger than 18 years were excluded. Diagnoses were tallied between March 1, 2018, and May 22, 2020. Interrupted time-series single-group analysis was performed to assess if pre-COVID-19 trends in case volumes differed significantly from post-COVID-19 trends. Segmented Poisson regression models were constructed to analyze trends Letters E2 JAMA
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.