Last Day of #AHA20: COVID-19 Galore!
The last day of the amazing #AHA20 featured a series of COVID-19-related research presentations.
First, data from the AHA COVID-19 Registry, a large database collecting data about COVID-19 patients and outcomes around the country, were shared. The registry includes data from 109 hospitals and over 22,500 records of patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19. Notably, large numbers of COVID-19 patients in this registry had cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes. Prior cardiovascular disease was also common. The disease was additionally noted to have a high morbidity and mortality rate, with more than 20% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation.
One interesting study examined racial and ethnic differences in the AHA COVID-19 Registry of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, focusing primarily on the association of these factors with in-hospital death as the primary outcome and secondary outcomes such as major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE: death, myocardial infarction, stroke, new onset heart failure or cardiogenic shock) or COVID-19 cardio-respiratory disease severity scale. Notably, Black and Hispanic patients accounted for >50% of hospitalizations in this Registry, suggesting significant over-representation of Black and Hispanic patients compared with the census demographics in their areas. Cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity and hypertension were also more common in Black and Hispanic patients. Mechanical ventilation and need for renal replacement therapy were more likely in Black patients. Overall in-hospital mortality was high at 18.4%, and particularly high for those older than 70 years old.
In fully adjusted models taking into account age, medical history and sociodemographic features, there was no statistically significant difference in mortality and MACE among different racial or ethnic groups, though Asian patients had a higher COVID-10 disease severity on presentation. These findings suggest that though race and ethnicity are not independently associated with worse in-hospital outcomes in COVID-19 patients, Black and Hispanic patients bear a greater burden of morbidity associated with COVID due to their disproportionate representation among patients hospitalized with CVOID-19. This study was simultaneously published online in Circulation.
One additional study examined the association between body mass index (BMI) with a composite of in-hospital death and/or mechanical ventilation (primary outcome), as well as with MACE (a composite of in-hospital all-cause death, stroke, heart failure, myocardial infarction), deep vein thrombosis and renal replacement therapy (secondary outcomes). Patients with a higher BMI were more likely to be admitted to the hospital with COVID-19. In analyses adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, comorbidities, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease, higher class obesity was associated with higher likelihood of in-hospital mortality or mechanical ventilation. MACE was not associated with obesity class. Deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism were not associated with obesity class. Class I, II and III obesity, however, were noted to have a higher likelihood of need for mechanical ventilation, regardless of age. Moreover, when stratified by age, BMI >40 kg/m2 was associated with a higher risk of in-hospital death only in lower age groups (<50 years old). These findings suggest that better public health messaging may be required for younger obese individuals who may underestimate their own risk related to COVID-19. This study was also simultaneously published in Circulation.
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