The COVID-19 Pandemic and Acute Coronary Syndrome Admissions and Deaths in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Background/Objectives: This study evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trends of acute coronary syndrome hospitalizations, all-cause deaths, and ischemic heart disease (IHD) deaths in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Methods: Inpatient hospital records from two hospital systems within Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, were aggregated from January 2017 to November 2020. The primary diagnoses were acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and unstable angina. The Pennsylvania Department of Health provided all-cause and IHD death counts for the same period. We compared absolute percentage changes in admissions by year (March–November) and trends by age-specific groups (<45, 45–64, 65–74, ≥75) from the pre-pandemic (January 2017–February 2020) to pandemic (March 2020–November 2020) period using an interrupted time-series analysis. Results: There were 11,913 AMI hospitalizations pre-pandemic and 2170 AMI hospitalizations during the pandemic period. AMI hospitalizations decreased by 14.8% and unstable angina hospitalizations decreased by 30.7% during the pandemic compared to 2019, with the largest decreases occurring in those aged ≥75. Total mortality increased by 9.2%, and IHD mortality increased by 2.4%. About 80% of the increase in deaths was due to COVID-19, and approximately 75% of deaths occurred in those aged ≥75 and in long-term care facility residents. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic did not markedly alter the longitudinal declining trend of AMI hospitalizations and IHD deaths in Allegheny County.