Study of cardiovascular comorbidities in ambulatory patients with COVID-19 and their impact on prognosis in the TASC GP study

INTRODUCTION: Several studies suggest that preexisting of cardiovascular comorbidities are associated with an increased risk of mortality following COVID-19 infection. However, it remains unclear how COVID-19 prognosis differs between different types of cardiovascular comorbidities. In this way the Tunisian Anticoagulations Survey in COVID-19 patients General Practice experience (TASC-GP) was conducted. OBJECTIVE: Analysis of cardiovascular comorbidities in patients included in the TASC-GP study and their impact on the prognosis. METHOD: The TASC-GP is an observational, multicenter study done between July 2021 and October 2021 included 3383 COVID-19 patients treated in ambulatory. Baseline characteristics and mortality rates were compared between patients with cardiovascular comorbidities and those without cardiovascular comorbidities. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS (IBM, Chicago, IL). RESULTS: The mean age was 51.6 ± 15.5 years with a sex ratio of 0.67. Forty percent of patients had at least one cardiovascular comorbidity. The distribution of cardiovascular comorbidities in the population was as follows: arterial hypertension in 1042 patients (30.7%), ischemic heart disease in 158 patients (4.6%) and heart failure in 121 patients (3.6%). Patients with at least one cardiovascular comorbidity had significantly more severe forms of COVID-19 compared to patients without comorbidities (10.8% vs. 5.6% P < 0.001). Deaths occurred mostly in patients with cardiovascular comorbidities (2.9% vs. 0.3%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Cardiovascular comorbidities are common in ambulatory patients with COVID-19 dominated by hypertension and ischemic heart disease. Cardiovascular comrobidities have a pejorative impact on the prognosis of patients hospitalized for COVID-19.