Early antithrombotic post-discharge therapy using prophylactic DOAC or dipyridamole improves long-term survival and cardiovascular outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 survivors.

Introduction: Cardiovascular events are common in COVID-19. While the use of anticoagulation during hospitalization has been established in current guidelines, recommendations regarding antithrombotic therapy in the post-discharge period are conflicting. Methods: To investigate this issue, we conducted a retrospective follow-up (393 ± 87 days) of 1,746 consecutive patients, hospitalized with and surviving COVID-19 pneumonia at a single tertiary medical center between April and December 2020. Survivors received either 30-day post-discharge antithrombotic treatment regime using prophylactic direct oral anticoagulation (DOAC; n = 1,002) or dipyridamole (n = 304), or, no post-discharge antithrombotic treatment (Ctrl; n = 440). All-cause mortality, as well as cardiovascular mortality (CVM) and further cardiovascular outcomes (CVO) resulting in hospitalization due to pulmonary embolism (PE), myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke were investigated during the follow-up period. Results: While no major bleeding events occured during follow-up in the treatment groups, Ctrl showed a high but evenly distributed rate all-cause mortality. All-cause mortality (CVM) was attenuated by prophylactic DOAC (0.6%, P < 0.001) and dipyridamole (0.7%, P < 0.001). This effect was also evident for both therapies after propensity score analyses using weighted binary logistic regression [DOAC: B = -3.33 (0.60), P < 0.001 and dipyridamole: B = -3.04 (0.76), P < 0.001]. While both treatment groups displayed a reduced rate of CVM [DOAC: B = -2.69 (0.74), P < 0.001 and dipyridamole: B = -17.95 (0.37), P < 0.001], the effect in the DOAC group was driven by reduction of both PE [B-3.12 (1.42), P = 0.012] and stroke [B = -3.08 (1.23), P = 0.028]. Dipyridamole significantly reduced rates of PE alone [B = -17.05 (1.01), P < 0.001]. Conclusion: Late cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality were high in the year following hospitalization for COVID-19. Application of prophylactic DOAC or dipyridamole in the early post-discharge period improved mid- and long-term CVO and all-cause mortality in COVID-19 survivors.

Diagnosis of coronary artery rethrombosis after effective systemic thrombolytic therapy in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the diagnostic significance of ST-segment re-elevation episodes registered with telemetric ECG monitoring in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated with thrombolytic therapy (TLT). The study included 117 patients with STEMI following effective TLT. The elective coronary angiography followed by percutaneous coronary interventions was performed in the interval from 3 to 24 hours after a successful systemic TLT. Before and after cardiac catheterization, the telemetric ECG monitoring was performed using AstroCard Telemetry system (Meditec, Russia). During the study, two groups of patients were formed. Group 1 included 85 patients (72.6%) without new ST-segment deviations on telemetry. 77 patients (90.6%) had no recurrent coronary artery thrombosis at angiography. Eight patients (9.4%) from group 1 were diagnosed with thrombosis of the infarct-related coronary artery. Group 2 included 32 patients (27.4%) who underwent TLT and then had ST-segment re-elevation episodes of 1 mV or more in the infarct-related leads, lasting for at least 1 minute. In group 2, in 27 of 32 patients (84.4%), thrombosis of the infarct-related coronary artery was confirmed (p<0.01 compared with group 1). In 71.9% cases, the recurrent ischemic episodes were asymptomatic ('painless myocardial ischemia') (p<0.01). Thus, in patients with STEMI and successful TLT, re-elevation of ST-segment during remote ECG monitoring is strongly related to angiographically documented coronary artery thrombotic reocclusion. The absence of chest pain during recurrent myocardial ischemia requires continuous ECG telemetry to select patients for the rescue percutaneous coronary interventions at an earlier stage.

Post-COVID-19 Tachycardia Syndrome: A Distinct Phenotype of Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome.

In this paper we highlight the presence of tachycardia in post-acute COVID-19 syndrome by introducing a new label for this phenomenon-post-COVID-19 tachycardia syndrome-and argue that this constitutes a phenotype or sub-syndrome in post-acute COVID-19 syndrome. We also discuss epidemiology, putative mechanisms, treatment options, and future research directions in this novel clinical syndrome.