Decline in the number of coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention procedures in patients with acute myocardial infarction in Poland during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic
Jacek Legutko, Łukasz Niewiara, Stanisław Bartuś, Sławomir Dobrzycki, Mariusz Gąsior, Marek Gierlotka, Janusz Kochman, Maciej Lesiak, Jerzy Matysek, Andrzej Ochała, Tomasz Pawłowski, Robert Gil, Adam Witkowski
Abstract
KARDIOLOGIA POLSKA 2020; 78 (6) 574 STEMI and NSTEMI, healthcare providers in numerous countries, including Poland, recommended deferral of elective hospitalizations and invasive procedures. However, in countries with the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS -CoV-2) and a large number of patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalization, a significant drop in the number of cardiac catheterization laboratory activations for STEMI has been recently reported. [4] 5][6] Nonetheless, it remains unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the invasive assessment and treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in countries with a well--developed network of catheterization laboratories and a relatively slower spread of SARS -CoV-2, such as Poland.