Impact of COVID-19 upon changes in emergency room visits with chest pain of possible cardiac origin
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(2020) 13:539 Butt et al. BMC Res Notes https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-020-05381-y
Open Access
RESEARCH NOTE
Impact of COVID‑19 upon changes in emergency room visits with chest pain of possible cardiac origin Adeel A. Butt1,2,3* , Anand Kartha1,2,3, Nidal Asaad1,2,3, Aftab M. Azad1,2,3, Roberto Bertollini4 and Abdul‑Badi Abou‑Samra1,2,3
Abstract Objectives: A decrease in Emergency Department (ED) visits for cardiac conditions has recently been reported from the US and Western Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The data are still scant, and the correlation between cardiac symptoms and confirmed diagnoses are not available. There are no reports on changes in ED volumes at a national level, or from countries in the Asia-Middle Eastern region. We report data from national referral centers for tertiary care and cardiac care centers in Qatar, which see > 80% of cardiac emergencies in the country. Results: We analyzed 102,033 ED visits in the COVID-19-era (March–April 2020 and 2019) and determined the proportion presenting for cardiac symptoms and their confirmed diagnoses. We observed a 16–37% decline in ED volumes overall, with a 25–50% decline in patients presenting with cardiac symptoms in March and April 2020 com‑ pared with March and April 2019. Among those presenting with cardiac symptoms, we observed a 24–43% decline in cardiac diagnoses in March and April 2020 compared with March and April 2019. Keywords: COVID-19, Emergency Department, SARS-CoV-2, Qatar, Acute illness Introduction Earlier anecdotal reports of a decline in acute care hospitalizations during the current COVID-19 pandemic have been confirmed with recent publications reporting a decline in overall admissions and admission for acute coronary syndrome [1–6]. These reports have all been from the US or Western Europe with relative homogenous populations. Data from countries with large migrant worker and more diverse populations are not available. Changes in volumes and visits to the Emergency Department (ED) for cardiac symptoms, and their correlation with final diagnosis in the COVID-19-era compared with pre-COVID-19 era are also largely unknown. Our aim *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Medicine, Hamad Medical Corporation, PO Box 3050, Doha, Qatar Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
was to determine the change in volumes of patients presenting to large Emergency Departments with cardiac symptoms before and after the current COVID-19 pandemic, and to determine the proportion of a confirmed cardiac diagnosis among them.
Main text Methods
In the State of Qatar, over 80% of patients with suspected acute coronary events are seen in two hospitals: Hamad General Hospital (HGH), which is the nation’s largest tertiary care referral center and the Heart Hospital (HH), which is the only specialty hospital in the nation designated specifically for cardiac care. Both hospitals are accredited by the Joint Commission International and utilize the same electronic health records system (Cerner®). Patient
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