Abstract P126: Presentation Differences in ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction Between 2019-2021 Related to COVID-19

Between March 2020 to October 2021, COVID-19 accounted for 12.2% of deaths, about 350,000 people in the United States. The pandemic virus accounted for the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. Importantly heart disease deaths increased 4.1% in the first year of exposures from 2019 to 2020 which may reflect delay to pursue medical care due to COVID. Because of lockdown mandates it was suspected that chronic and incident diseases had poorer disease control and delayed diagnosis of primary conditions due to decreased contact within the medical system with the purpose of decreasing viral spread. We wished to collect background presentation differences in a specific cohort at risk, STEMI-activated patients, for years 2019 to 2021. 1001 adults were STEMI-activated January 2019 to December 2021. Patient demographics, risk factors, details of presentation and rationale for cath-lab activation were obtained. Average age 63.5 years old, BMI 30.2 kg/m2, and 68.8% males, which was not statistically significant. Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, chronic lung disease, prior CABG, tobacco use, dialysis renal disease, history and newly diagnosed congestive heart failure were not significant between years. However cerebrovascular disease(CVA) was three times more prominent for patients presenting in 2019 compared to 2020. There were no differences in details of presentation for location of cardiac arrest (out-of-hospital, transfer, in-hospital). Rationale for cardiac cath was significant for new onset angina significant in 2019 and 2021. Worsening angina was significant in 2019. COVID-19 continues to affect many aspects of society and healthcare but how it has affected background disease control remains unclear. Patients in our sample were similar age, BMI and gender. Background risk factors were significant for CVA which was 1.87 times higher in 2019. New onset angina led to more caths in 2019 and 2021, and worsening angina was a significant complaint in 2019 compared to other years. There were not the amount of differences we expected suggesting that chronic diseases and new diagnoses remained at near the same level through years of pandemic consideration.