Decreased door-to-balloon time in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction during the early COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea – an observational study
Abstract
Background
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in a marked decrease in the number of patient visits for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and delayed patient response and intervention in several countries. This study evaluated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of patients, patient response time (pain-to-door), and intervention time (door-to-balloon) for patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI).
Methods
Patients with STEMI or NSTEMI visiting a hospital in South Korea who underwent primary coronary intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic (January 29, 2020, to December 31, 2020) were compared with those in the equivalent period in 2018 to 2019. Patient response and intervention times were compared for the COVID-19 pandemic window (2020) and the equivalent period in 2018 to 2019.
Results
We observed no decrease in the number of patients with STEMI (P=0.50) and NSTEMI (P=0.94) during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to that in the previous years. Patient response times (STEMI: P=0.34; NSTEMI: P=0.89) during the overall COVID-19 pandemic period did not differ significantly. However, we identified a significant decrease in time to intervention among patients with STEMI (14%; p<0.01) during the early COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusions
We found that the number of patient with STEMI and NSTEMI was consistent during the COVID-19 pandemic and that no time delays in patient response and intervention occurred. However, the door-to-balloon time among patients with STEMI significantly reduced during the early COVID-19 pandemic, which could be attributed to reduced emergency care utilization during the early pandemic.
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