The influence of COVID-19 pandemic on management of acute myocardial infarction in Japan; Insight from the Miyagi AMI Registry Study

Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the first state of emergency had been declared from April 7 to May 25, 2020, in Japan. This pandemic might affect the management for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Method and Results: To evaluate the critical care and outcomes of AMI patients during the COVID-19 outbreak, we examined the patients with AMI hospitalized in 2020 (n = 1186) and those in 2017–2019 (n = 4877) using a database of the Miyagi AMI Registry Study. The door-to-device time under the emergency declaration became longer as compared with that of the same period in 2017–2019 [83(65–111) vs 74(54–108) min, p = 0.04]. Importantly, the time delay was noted in only patients with Killip class I on arrival, but not in those with Killip class II–IV. Meanwhile, there were no significant changes in the duration from the symptom onset to hospital arrival, the use rate of ambulance and the performance rate of primary percutaneous coronary intervention before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Eventually, in-hospital mortality had not deteriorated under the state of emergency (6.7 vs 7.8 %, P = 0.69). Conclusion: The emergence of the COVID-19 outbreak seemed to affect AMI management and highlight understanding the barriers to cardiovascular critical care.