The aim of study was to investigate the transformative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) services in one tertiary cardiovascular center. The retrospective observational cohort study analyzed data of MRI studies (n = 8137) performed from 1 January 2019 to 1 June 2022. A total of 987 patients underwent contrast-enhanced cardiac MRI (CE-CMR). Referrals, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, gender, age, past COVID-19, MRI study protocols, and MRI data were analyzed. The annual absolute numbers and rates of CE-CMR procedures in our center significantly increased from 2019 to 2022 (p-value < 0.05). The increasing temporal trends were observed in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCMP) and myocardial fibrosis (p-value < 0.05). The CE-CMR findings of myocarditis, acute myocardial infarction, ischemic cardiomyopathy, HCMP, postinfarction cardiosclerosis, and focal myocardial fibrosis prevailed in men compared with the corresponding values in women during the pandemic (p-value < 0.05). The frequency of myocardial fibrosis occurrence increased from ~67% in 2019 to ~84% in 2022 (p-value < 0.05). The COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for MRI and CE-CMR. Patients with a history of COVID-19 had persistent and newly occurring symptoms of myocardial damage, suggesting chronic cardiac involvement consistent with long COVID-19 requiring continuous follow-up.

The study aimed to assess clinical pharmacology patterns of prescribed and taken medications in older cardiovascular patients using electronic health records (EHRs) (n = 704) (2019–2022). Medscape Drug Interaction Checker was used to identify pairwise drug–drug interactions (DDIs). Prevalence rates of DDIs were 73.5% and 68.5% among taken and prescribed drugs, respectively. However, the total number of DDIs was significantly higher among the prescribed medications (p < 0.05). Serious DDIs comprised 16% and 7% of all DDIs among the prescribed and taken medications, respectively (p < 0.05). Median numbers of DDIs between the prescribed vs. taken medications were Me = 2, IQR 0–7 vs. Me = 3, IQR 0–7 per record, respectively. Prevalence of polypharmacy was significantly higher among the prescribed medications compared with that among the taken drugs (p < 0.05). Women were taking significantly more drugs and had higher prevalence of polypharmacy and DDIs (p < 0.05). No sex-related differences were observed in the list of prescribed medications. ICD code U07.1 (COVID-19, virus identified) was associated with the highest median DDI number per record. Further research is warranted to improve EHR structure, implement patient engagement in reporting adverse drug reactions, and provide genetic profiling of patients to avoid potentially serious DDIs.

The study aimed to identify clinical pharmacology patterns of prescribed and taken medications in older cardiovascular patients using electronic health records (EHRs) (n = 704) (2019–2022). Medscape Drug Interaction Checker was used to identify pairwise drug-drug interactions (DDIs). Prevalence rates of DDIs were 73.5% and 68.5% among taken and prescribed drugs, respectively. However, total number of DDIs was significantly higher among prescribed medications compared with the list of taken drugs (p &lt; 0.05). Serious DDIs comprised 16% and 7% of all DDIs among prescribed and taken medications, correspondingly (p &lt; 0.05). Median DDI numbers between prescribed versus taken medications were Me = 2, IQR 0-7 and Me = 3, IQR 0-7 per record, respectively. Prevalence of polypharmacy was significantly higher among prescribed medications compared with taken medications (p &lt; 0.05). Women were taking significantly more drugs and had higher rates of polypharmacy and DDIs (p &lt; 0.05). No sex-related differences were observed in the list of prescribed medications. ICD code U07.1 (COVID-19, virus identified) was associated with the highest median DDI number per record. Further research is warranted to improve EHR structure, patient engagement in reporting adverse drug reactions, and genetic profiling of patients to avoid potentially serious DDIs.