Older (average age of 72 vs. 68 for the 2019 cardiac-arrest patients)
Less likely to be white (20 percent white vs. 33 percent)
More likely to have hypertension (54 percent vs. 46 percent)
More likely to have diabetes (36 percent vs. 26 percent)
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More likely to have physical limitations (57 percent vs. 48 percent)
More likely to have cardiac rhythms that don't respond to defibrillator shocks (92% vs. 81%)
More likely to die (90% vs 75%)
Why might a respiratory disease like COVID-19 trigger heart problems? In addition to overwhelming pneumonia and acute respiratory failure, COVID-19 damages the lining of blood vessels, leading to blood clots that can trigger heart attacks even in people with no previous cardiopulmonary diseases.
"Our findings show that it's clearly important to intervene early in the course of COVID-19 infection, before often-fatal cardiac arrests occur," said Dr. Prezant. "They also underline the critical need, particularly during a pandemic, to provide better access to healthcare and outreach for vulnerable patients with chronic conditions. Early, targeted interventions for those at-risk individuals—regular telemedicine visits and home-based monitoring of vital signs including oxygen saturation levels, for example—might help to reduce out-of-hospital fatalities."
The study is titled "Characteristics Associated With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests and Resuscitations During the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in New York City." Other authors are: Pamela H. Lai, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., and Elizabeth A. Lancet, Dr.P.H. M.P.H., from FDNY; Michael D. Weiden, M.D. M.S., from FDNY and NYU Langone; and Mayris P. Webber, Dr.P.H. M.P.H.; Rachel Zeig-Owens, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.; and Charles B. Hall, Ph.D., all from Einstein-Montefiore and FDNY.
About Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the nation's premier centers for research, medical education and clinical investigation. During the 2019-20 academic year, Einstein is home to 724 M.D. students, 158 Ph.D. students, 106 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 265 postdoctoral research fellows. The College of Medicine has more than 1,800 full-time faculty members located on the main campus and at its clinical affiliates. In 2019, Einstein received more than $178 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This includes the funding of major research centers at Einstein in aging, intellectual development disorders, diabetes, cancer, clinical and translational research, liver disease, and AIDS. Other areas where the College of Medicine is concentrating its efforts include developmental brain research, neuroscience, cardiac disease, and initiatives to reduce and eliminate ethnic and racial health disparities. Its partnership with Montefiore, the University Hospital and academic medical center for Einstein, advances clinical and translational research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients. Einstein runs one of the largest residency and fellowship training programs in the medical and dental professions in the United States through Montefiore and an affiliation network involving hospitals and medical centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and on Long Island. For more information, please visit www.einstein.yu.edu, read our blog, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and view us on YouTube.
