The newest evaluation from The North American COVID-19 STEMI (NACMI) was presented today as late-breaking clinical research on the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 2023 Scientific Sessions. The findings show patients with an ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or STEMI, and COVID-19 had a major amount of clotting of their arteries each before and after intervention. Importantly, clots were seen in multiple arteries in near 30% of patients, a phenomenon observed in lower than 5% of patients with heart attacks who do not need COVID-19.
In the USA, someone experiences a heart attack every 40 seconds (CDC). Of those patients, greater than 25% will experience a more severe form of heart attack, an ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or STEMI brought on by the sudden, total blockage of a coronary artery. Pre-COVID-19 mortality in STEMI patients was below 5% (JACC). Previous NACMI research has shown that mortality jumps to twenty% to 25% in patients who present with COVID-19 and a heart attack.
On this blinded angiographic evaluation, sites were invited to send angiograms to the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Core Lab (Vancouver, CA). Quantitative coronary angiography percent diameter stenosis (DS), thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) flow, myocardial blush grade (MBG) and thrombus grade burden (TGB) were assessed. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was classified as unsuccessful if there was residual DS>50% and/or
Angiograms of 234 patients from 17 sites (12 US, 5 CAN) were analyzed. High TGB was observed in 74% of all patients pre-intervention and 29% of patients post intervention. A high proportion of patients (19%) didn’t have wrongdoer lesions (locations contained in the arteries readily identified by treating physicians) suggesting other mechanisms for heart attack possibly at play on this patient population. Core lab identified stent thrombosis (clotting of previously placed stents) in 12% of the complete cohort – a frequency that has never been observed in other STEMI cohorts. Of the 49 patients Core lab identified PCI failure rates were 34% which a high complication rate of 23%, mostly related to thrombus.
COVID-19 is a pro-inflammatory, clot forming disease and we now see its effect within the coronary arteries. These latest insights point to the necessity for clinicians to be meticulous with blood thinning strategies, early interventions and patient follow-up.”
Payam Dehghani, MD, FRCPC, FACC, FSCAI, Co-Director of Prairie Vascular Research Inc and Associate Professor on the University of Saskatchewan, Canada
The NACMI registry is a collaboration between SCAI, the American College of Cardiology and the Canadian Association of Interventional Cardiology. The registry was established in 2020 with the aim to define baseline characteristics and management strategies and end result data for COVID-19 patients presenting with STEMI. Greater than 60 medical centers across North America and Canada contributed data to the registry.
Researchers note that further investigation is required to raised understand the impact of COVID-19 and heart attacks related vaccination in addition to long-term outcomes.
Source:
Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions