P225 CICU–COVID: SMALL NUMBERS BUT BIG DIFFERENCES

Abstract

Abstract For about 2 months (from 13 January to 15 March 2022) our CICU–Cardiology department (spoke for the AMI network) of the "San Giovanni di Dio" Hospital of Frattamaggiore (Naples) has assumed the role of CICU–COVID for Local Health Authority Napoli 2 Nord. We analyzed data regarding patients hospitalized in our department from January to August, selected on the basis of the presence of SARS–COV2 infection at admission, and we noted some substantial differences between the two populations, despite in the small sample examined. Patients hospitalized with Covid were, on average, of older age (73 vs 66.3 years old) and their hospitalization was on average longer (9 days vs 6.5), with differences both in the percentage of patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction (46.4 % in non–Covid patients vs 34% in Covid patients) and in the type of myocardial infarction: in fact, among the Covid patients who arrived at the ward with a heart attack diagnosis, STEMIs were more numerous (53.3% vs 15.7 of the non–Covid patients) . This may be due to the fact that in the period in which we have acted as Covid–CICU we have also accepted patients with STEMI who otherwise would have been hospitalized in the CICU HUB. Furthermore, the Covid patients were mostly affected by other chronic pathologies: in particular diabetes (40.8% of Covid patients and 18.4% of non–covid patients) and heart failure (54.5% in Covid patients vs 38, 9% in non–Covid). Finally, we examined the data regarding intra–hospital and 6–month mortality, and here too we found substantial differences: 16 of the 44 patients hospitalized with covid (36% of the total) died within 6 months of admission (18.1% in hospital ), while among non–covid patients 6–month mortality was 7% and intra–hospital mortality was 2%. In detail, the difference in mortality between the two groups of patients with myocardial infarction was even more marked, being the 6–month mortality 33.3% in Covid patients and 2.2% in non–Covid. Again, the group of Covid patients who died was affected by diabetes in a much higher percentage than the non–covid (56% vs 28.6%) These data come from a very small sample but nevertheless indicate that the simultaneous infection with SARS–COV2 dramatically worsens the prognosis of patients who normally refer to the CICU–Cardiology departments, and that some associated pathologies affect the prognosis even more significantly than others.