CLINICAL RESEARCH
Acute myocardial infarction in COVID-19 patients. A review of cases in the literature
 
More details
Hide details
1
Department of Internal Medicine, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Hospital, Jamshoro, Pakistan
 
2
Department of Internal Medicine, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Punjab, India
 
3
Department of Pediatrics, Shanghai Xin Hua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
 
 
Submission date: 2021-07-28
 
 
Final revision date: 2021-08-31
 
 
Acceptance date: 2021-08-31
 
 
Publication date: 2021-09-20
 
 
Arch Med Sci Atheroscler Dis 2021;6(1):169-175
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
COVID-19 is an ongoing pandemic that has lasted more than a year. Patients with multiple comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, and smoking have been shown to be at increased risk of a more severe course and lethal outcome. Since the disease can also lead to a hypercoagulable state, several cases of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have also been recorded.

Material and methods:
We searched PubMed/Medline for case reports of AMI occurring in COVID-19 positive patients using “acute myocardial infarction”, “COVID-19”, and “SARS-CoV-2” as keywords.

Results:
Thirty-three articles covering 37 patients were identified, among which 30 (81.1%) were male, and 7 (18.9%) were females. The mean age of these 37 patients was 52.8 ±15.6 years. Most cases were from the United States (17 cases, 45.9%). Several comorbidities such as hypertension (16 cases, 43.2%), diabetes (14 cases, 37.8%), smoking (8 cases, 21.6%), obesity (3 cases, 8.1%), morbid obesity (1 case, 2.7%), and elevated lipid levels (4 cases, 10.8%) were also identified. The most common symptom of AMI was chest tightness (22 cases, 59.5%), while the most common symptoms for COVID-19 were dyspnoea (25 cases, 67.6%) and fever (22 cases, 59.5%). The mortality rate was 35.1%.

Conclusions:
Given the high mortality rate, physicians are encouraged to properly check for signs of cardiac dysfunction and possible AMI while treating COVID-19 positive patients with several comorbidities or previous history of AMI.

ISSN:2451-0629
Journals System - logo
Scroll to top