Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Presentation and Outcome of Consecutive Patients Admitted to Hospital Due to ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Abstract Impact of COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-related social restrictions on clinical course of patients treated for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is unclear. In the present study presentation and outcome of patients with STEMI in the year 2020 were compared to the years before in a German registry that includes all patients hospitalized for acute STEMI in a region with approximately 1 million inhabitants. In the year 2020 726 patients with STEMI were registered compared to 10.226 patients in the years 2006-2019 (730 ± 57 patients per year). No significant differences were observed between the groups regarding age, sex and medical history of patients. However, in the year 2020 a significantly higher rate of patients admitted with cardiogenic shock (21.9% vs. 14.2%, p