Frequency of cardiological consultations and out-of-hospital cardiac arrests during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: the COVID-19 pandemic has determined the application of emergency health measures aimed at preventing progression at national level. International reports have suggested that these measures lead to a lack of care in other pathologies, mainly cardiovascular, and eventually increase out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
Objective: to determine the frequency of emergency consultation for chest pain and out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, assisted by the main pre-hospital emergency services of Montevideo, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: information was requested to the medical institutions of Montevideo and all over the country, on the number
of consultations for chest pain and total consultations, in the period March 13- April 30 of 2018, 2019 and 2020. The frequency of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Montevideo was requested to the pre-hospital emergency services during the same period. The data is expressed as absolute frequency and incidence rates (x 100,000) with its 95% CI calculated by Fisher.
Results: the number of consultations for precordial pain was stable during the 2018-2019 period. During 2020, these
consultations decreased and represented between 11.3% and 21.7% of the total number of consultations. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests showed a non significant increase in its incidence rate in 2020 (9.05, 95%IC: 7.15-11.30) compared with 2019 (7.94, 95%IC: 6.19-10.04) and 2018 (7.43, 95%IC: 5.75-9.45).
Conclusions: the raw data presented shows that from March 13 to April 30 of 2020, there was a decrease in emergency visits for precordial pain and a non-significant increase in the incidence rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.