The Reduction of Cardiac Patients in the Coronary Care Unit of the Santa Izabel Hospital During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The coronary care unit by Santa Izabel Hospital (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil) made a comparison of admitted patients with coronary disease cases admitted between two equivalent periods ranging from April through July in 2019 and 2020. There was a striking reduction in 2020 of cases of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (39%); non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (19%); and unstable angina pectoris (21%). This occurred in parallel with what happened in many parts of the world and hampered offering the best treatment strategy to these patients with an acute coronary syndrome such as invasive stratification and myocardial revascularization.