Cardiovascular disease and the impact of COVID‐19

Abstract

Khan et al 1 reported on cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19. The study has concluded that appropriate risk stratification and triage is essential in patients with cardiovascular diseases and COVID-19 as their outcomes could be severely affected.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiology services

“…infections. 5 Therefore, more extreme lifestyle changes through shielding were implemented for those deemed to be most vulnerable, such as those with cardiac transplants, complex congenital heart disease and advanced heart failure in order to reduce their exposure risk. 6 In line with government guidelines, cardiology services had to alter the delivery of care by adopting virtual clinic models, redeployment of staff to the acute medical services and rescheduling of non-urgent procedures, while at the same time dealing with the cardiac complications of COVID-19 such as myocarditis, myocardial infarction and heart failure.…”

Impact Of The COVID-19 Pandemic on Hospital Admissions and In-Hospital Lethality From Cardiovascular Diseases in Brazil: An Ecological and Time Series Study

“…Corroborating our findings, a study conducted in New York (USA) observed a significant reduction in acute hospitalizations for chronic diseases in 2020, including cardiovascular diseases 23 . Importantly, the delay in patient care, observed in many countries, has resulted in serious clinical conditions rarely seen outside this context, such as cardiogenic shock and ventricular rupture due to acute myocardial infarction (AMI), which significantly increases risk of death from CVD 24 .…”

COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on service provision: A cardiology prospect

“…Tanguturi et al have suggested that patients with aortic stenosis should be monitored via virtual assessments every 1-3 months to assess disease progression and treatment should be delayed until the pandemic subsides [32]. However, the risk of delaying treatment should be balanced against the risk of patient exposure to infection and current resource limitations [33].…”

“…Stahel et al proposed a scoring system for elective surgeries after a blanket cancellation order was submitted by the American College of Surgeons [46]. Adapting and implementing such a system to elective cardiac surgeries could assist in determining the urgency of cases and ensuring patient safety [47,48]. Risk scoring systems and algorithms may also be beneficial to risk-stratify patients with chronic conditions as well as emergency admissions.…”