Clinical and procedural characteristics of COVID‐19 patients treated with percutaneous coronary interventions

Siudak, Zbigniew; Grygier, Marek; Wojakowski, Wojciech; Malinowski, Krzysztof P.; Witkowski, Adam; Gąsior, Mariusz; Dudek, Dariusz; Bartuś, Stanisław

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.