Mortality Pattern in STEMI patients treated with Primary PCI during COVID-19 era at Manchester Heart Centre

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically transformed the healthcare provision in the United Kingdom as the National Health Service (NHS) adopted to deal with the unexpected health emergency. Many well-established systems to deal with known acute conditions had to be adopted so that available resources can be utilized in the best possible efficient way. As with all regions with the UK, the greater Manchester cardiac services dealing with acute STEMI and providing primary PCI were reorganized with specific guidelines and clear pathways put in place, this led to significant change in the long-standing clinical practice for the acute management of PPCI.

Methodology: The effects of these changes were assessed by observing the overall mortality during the 3 months of strict lockdown introduced in the UK to contain the spread of COVID-19 and then comparing this with the corresponding 3 months in the preceding year.

Results: In this study we have highlighted the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on STEMI patients who underwent PPCIs. In this study, a total of 262 patients in both periods (March-June 2019) and (March-June 2020) were treated for PPCI. There were 15 mortalities in both periods. Among them majority were males (86.7%) while (13.3%) were females.

Conclusion: Although the mortality was high (53.3%) during the COVID-19 period as compared to 2019 (47.7%), there does not appear to be any causative/confounding relationship with the COVID-19 pandemic itself.