Longitudinal Trends in Cardiovascular Risk Factor Profiles and Complications Among Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19 Infection: Results From the American Heart Association COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease Registry.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved through multiple phases characterized by new viral variants, vaccine development, and changes in therapies. It is unknown whether rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor profiles and complications have changed over time. METHODS: We analyzed the American Heart Association COVID-19 CVD registry, a national multicenter registry of hospitalized adults with active COVID-19 infection. The time period from April 2020 to December 2021 was divided into 3-month epochs, with March 2020 analyzed separately as a potential outlier. Participating centers varied over the study period. Trends in all-cause in-hospital mortality, CVD risk factors, and in-hospital CVD outcomes, including a composite primary outcome of cardiovascular death, cardiogenic shock, new heart failure, stroke, and myocardial infarction, were evaluated across time epochs. Risk-adjusted analyses were performed using generalized linear mixed-effects models. RESULTS: A total of 46 007 patient admissions from 134 hospitals were included (mean patient age 61.8 years, 53% male, 22% Black race). Patients admitted later in the pandemic were younger, more likely obese, and less likely to have existing CVD (Ptrend ≤0.001 for each). The incidence of the primary outcome increased from 7.0% in March 2020 to 9.8% in October to December 2021 (risk-adjusted Ptrend=0.006). This was driven by an increase in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and stroke (Ptrend<0.0001 for each). The overall rate of in-hospital mortality was 14.2%, which declined over time (20.8% in March 2020 versus 10.8% in the last epoch; adjusted Ptrend<0.0001). When the analysis was restricted to July 2020 to December 2021, no temporal change in all-cause mortality was seen (adjusted Ptrend=0.63). CONCLUSIONS: Despite a shifting risk factor profile toward a younger population with lower rates of established CVD, the incidence of diagnosed cardiovascular complications of COVID increased from the onset of the pandemic through December 2021. All-cause mortality decreased during the initial months of the pandemic and thereafter remained consistently high through December 2021.

New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: Results From the American Heart Association COVID-19 Cardiovascular Registry.

BACKGROUND: New-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 has been reported and associated with poor clinical outcomes. We aimed to understand the incidence of and outcomes associated with new-onset AF in a diverse and representative US cohort of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. METHODS: We used data from the American Heart Association COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease Registry. Patients were stratified by the presence versus absence of new-onset AF. The primary and secondary outcomes were in-hospital mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE; cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiogenic shock, and heart failure). The association of new-onset AF and the primary and secondary outcomes was evaluated using Cox proportional-hazards models for the primary time to event analyses. RESULTS: Of the first 30 999 patients from 120 institutions across the United States hospitalized with COVID-19, 27 851 had no history of AF. One thousand five hundred seventeen (5.4%) developed new-onset AF during their index hospitalization. New-onset AF was associated with higher rates of death (45.2% versus 11.9%) and MACE (23.8% versus 6.5%). The unadjusted hazard ratio for mortality was 1.99 (95% CI, 1.81-2.18) and for MACE was 2.23 (95% CI, 1.98-2.53) for patients with versus without new-onset AF. After adjusting for demographics, clinical comorbidities, and severity of disease, the associations with death (hazard ratio, 1.10 [95% CI, 0.99-1.23]) fully attenuated and MACE (hazard ratio, 1.31 [95% CI, 1.14-1.50]) partially attenuated. CONCLUSIONS: New-onset AF was common (5.4%) among patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Almost half of patients with new-onset AF died during their index hospitalization. After multivariable adjustment for comorbidities and disease severity, new-onset AF was not statistically significantly associated with death, suggesting that new-onset AF in these patients may primarily be a marker of other adverse clinical factors rather than an independent driver of mortality. Causality between the MACE composites and AF needs to be further evaluated.

Corrigendum to U.S. Population at Increased Risk of Severe Illness from COVID-19.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpc.2021.100156.].

U.S. population at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes that older adults and individuals with certain medical conditions are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 infection. Understanding the proportion of the population at risk of severe infection, including among those with heart disease, could assist current vaccine strategy efforts. METHODS: Using data from the 2015-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we estimated the weighted prevalence of any of eight of eleven increased-risk conditions (including age ≥65) in U.S. adults aged ≥18 (N = 10,581) and extrapolated these results to a population of 233.8 million U.S. adults ≥18, and subgroups from the overall population defined by race/ethnicity, education, income and history of heart disease. RESULTS: An estimated 176.1 million individuals representing 75.4% of U.S. adults had at least one increased-risk condition, 40.3% ≥2 and, 18.5% ≥3 conditions. Approximately 129 million adults aged <65 (69.2%) were also estimated to be at increased-risk. Compared to Whites, similar proportions of Blacks in the overall population (78.0 vs. 75.6%, p>0.05) and Hispanics in the younger population (70.8 vs 68.4%) were estimated to be at increased-risk. Conversely, a greater proportion of individuals with lower education and income levels were estimated to be at increased-risk both in the overall and younger population. In addition, an estimated 6.2 million individuals (14.5%) had heart disease. Among these, virtually all had at least one additional CDC risk factor (97.9%) and most had ≥2 or ≥3 risk factors (83.8% and 58.5%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: As vaccination strategies are being explored, these results demonstrate that >75% of adults in the U.S. would be considered at increased-risk for severe COVID-19 infection by CDC criteria. Risk factor prevalence alone may not adequately capture the totality of risk, particularly among Black and Hispanic racial/ethnic groups and those with heart disease.