International Journal of Cardiovascular Sciences. 02/Feb/2024;37:e20220203.
Characteristics of ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction during the SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak
Guilherme Pinheiro Machado
, Gustavo Neves de Araujo
, Rafael Beltrame
, André Luiz Theobald
, Matheus de Souza Niches
, Julia Fagundes Fracasso
, Victoria Milan
, Julia Luchese Custodio
, Camila Porto Cardoso
, Pedro Henrique Torres Tietz
, Giulia Bonatto Reichert
, Marcia Moura Schmidt
, Alexandre Schaan de Quadros
, Marco Vugman Wainstein
Introduction
The ongoing pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections led to more than 101,371,256 cases and 2,817,659 deaths globally by January 28, 2021. Although many infections have mild and self-limiting symptoms, around 15% of adults develop severe pneumonia requiring supplementary oxygen treatment, and approximately 5% progress to respiratory failure and require prolonged mechanical ventilation. When this occurs, there is a high rate of mortality and complications, overloading health systems, especially intensive care units.
Social isolation has been recommended by the World Health Organization as the main measure to avoid contagion. To avoid unnecessary circulation, most hospitals have cancelled elective procedures, maintaining only urgency and emergency care. One of the concerns about the social isolation recommendation was that people with potentially life-threatening conditions, such as acute myocardial infarction, would take more time to seek medical assistance due to fear of exposure to the virus.
[…]
615
