Internal and emergency medicine
-
COVID-19 outbreak had a major impact on the organization of care in Italy, and a survey to evaluate provision of for arrhythmia during COVID-19 outbreak (March-April 2020) was launched. A total of 104 physicians from 84 Italian arrhythmia centres took part in the survey. ⋯ The majority of participating centres (77.4%) reported a significant reduction in the number of elective ablations (> 50% in 65.5% of the centres). Also the interventional procedures performed in an emergency setting, as well as acute management of atrial fibrillation had a marked reduction, thus leading to the conclusion that the impact of COVID-19 was disrupting the entire organization of health care, with a massive impact on the activities and procedures related to arrhythmia management in Italy.
-
Infection with SARS-CoV-2 is becoming the leading cause of death in most countries during the 2020 pandemic. The objective of this study is to assess the association between COVID-19 and cause-specific death. The design is retrospective cohort study. ⋯ Fifteen percent of patients with COVID-19 infection died from decompensation of other pathologies and the cause of death was unrelated to COVID-19 severe complications. Most of these patients had more comorbidities and were frail and elderly. These findings can partially explain the excess mortality in older people.
-
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has aggressively spread across the United States with numerous fatalities. Risk factors for mortality are poorly described. This was a multicentered cohort study identifying patient characteristics and diagnostic markers present on initial evaluation associated with mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. ⋯ This study is one of the largest analyses in an epicenter for the COVID-19 pandemic. Older age, low oxygen saturation and elevated respiratory rate on admission, and initial lab derangements including renal and hepatic dysfunction and elevated procalcitonin and lactic acid are risk factors for in-hospital death. These factors can help clinicians prognosticate and should be considered in management strategies.
-
Vitamin K-Antagonists (VKAs) are the treatment of choice in patients with indications other than atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism. Moreover, some patients still assume VKAs refusing to change their therapy when direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are properly indicated. The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed our lives, nullifying inter-personal relationships to avoid contagion, making difficult the VKAs monitoring. ⋯ We tried to extend self-testing at home by means of portable coagulometers to as more patients as possible. To avoid patients staying or coming back to the TC an ad hoc web platform for sending the therapeutic dose adjustment and the next scheduled appointment was developed. The TC re-organization allowed us to monitor anticoagulated patients respecting personal isolation and security measures to avoid possible COVID-19 contagion.