Impella 5.0 support before, during, and after surgical ventriculoplasty following acute myocardial infarction in the COVID-19 era: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Left ventricular (LV) aneurysms complicate anterior myocardial infarctions (MIs) in 8-15% of cases. In case of associated LV dysfunction, rapidly evolving heart failure may follow, and urgent surgery becomes life-saving. CASE SUMMARY: Following an acute anterior MI treated by percutaneous coronary intervention, which resulted in apical hypokinesis, depressed LV function, and moderate mitral regurgitation, a 70-year-old male patient kept in contact with our cardiology department through phone calls. Over 6 weeks, the patient's conditions worsened. For fear of contracting COVID-19, he refused to attend to the Emergency Room. Conditions did not improve despite medical therapy adjustments, and he was admitted to hospital following a syncope. Computed tomography scan revealed pneumonia, and he was placed in a 'grey' ward while waiting for nose-swab results for COVID-19. A rapid escalation of treatment was necessary as conditions did not improve with low-dose inotropes, and he required invasive ventilation. An Impella 5.0 was implanted as support prior to surgery, was maintained during the procedure and as a means of weaning off extracorporeal circulation. Surgery was successful and Impella 5.0 was removed on postoperative Day 5. DISCUSSION: To date, Impella use in cardiothoracic surgery has been described in case of ventricular septal rupture or as a bridge to permanent LV assist device. In our case, Impella 5.0 was implanted, used as a bridge to surgery, and as postoperative support in a patient with evolving cardiogenic shock due to LV aneurysm and depressed LV ejection fraction following acute MI, in the difficult setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The effect of COVID-19 epidemic on vital signs in hospitalized patients: a pre-post heat-map study from a large teaching hospital.

The Lombardy SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in February 2020 represented the beginning of COVID-19 epidemic in Italy. Hospitals were flooded by thousands of patients with bilateral pneumonia and severe respiratory, and vital sign derangements compared to the standard hospital population. We propose a new visual analysis technique using heat maps to describe the impact of COVID-19 epidemic on vital sign anomalies in hospitalized patients. We conducted an electronic health record study, including all confirmed COVID-19 patients hospitalized from February 21st, 2020 to April 21st, 2020 as cases, and all non-COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the same wards from January 1st, 2018 to December 31st, 2018. All data on temperature, peripheral oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, arterial blood pressure, and heart rate were retrieved. Derangement of vital signs was defined according to predefined thresholds. 470 COVID-19 patients and 9241 controls were included. Cases were older than controls, with a median age of 79 vs 76 years in non survivors (p = < 0.002). Gender was not associated with mortality. Overall mortality in COVID-19 hospitalized patients was 18%, ranging from 1.4% in patients below 65 years to about 30% in patients over 65 years. Heat maps analysis demonstrated that COVID-19 patients had an increased frequency in episodes of compromised respiratory rate, acute desaturation, and fever. COVID-19 epidemic profoundly affected the incidence of severe derangements in vital signs in a large academic hospital. We validated heat maps as a method to analyze the clinical stability of hospitalized patients. This method may help to improve resource allocation according to patient characteristics.

Early detection of elevated cardiac biomarkers to optimise risk stratification in patients with COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: Risk stratification is crucial to optimise treatment strategies in patients with COVID-19. We aimed to evaluate the impact on mortality of an early assessment of cardiac biomarkers in patients with COVID-19. METHODS: Humanitas Clinical and Research Hospital (Rozzano-Milan, Lombardy, Italy) is a tertiary centre that has been converted to the management of COVID-19. Patients with confirmed COVID-19 were entered in a dedicated database for cohort observational analyses. Outcomes were stratified according to elevated levels (ie, above the upper level of normal) of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-TnI), B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) or both measured within 24 hours after hospital admission. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. RESULTS: A total of 397 consecutive patients with COVID-19 were included up to 1 April 2020. At the time of hospital admission, 208 patients (52.4%) had normal values for cardiac biomarkers, 90 (22.7%) had elevated both hs-TnI and BNP, 59 (14.9%) had elevated only BNP and 40 (10.1%) had elevated only hs-TnI. The rate of mortality was higher in patients with elevated hs-TnI (22.5%, OR 4.35, 95% CI 1.72 to 11.04), BNP (33.9%, OR 7.37, 95% CI 3.53 to 16.75) or both (55.6%, OR 18.75, 95% CI 9.32 to 37.71) as compared with those without elevated cardiac biomarkers (6.25%). A multivariate analysis identified concomitant elevation of both hs-TnI and BNP as a strong independent predictor of all-cause mortality (OR 3.24, 95% CI 1.06 to 9.93). CONCLUSIONS: An early detection of elevated hs-TnI and BNP predicts mortality in patients with COVID-19. Cardiac biomarkers should be systematically assessed in patients with COVID-19 at the time of hospital admission in order to optimise risk stratification.