Divergent Trends in Emergency Department Presentations Amid the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in Chicago, Illinois

J Card Fail. 2021 Dec;27(12):1472-1475. doi: 10.1016/j.cardfail.2021.09.011. Epub 2021 Oct 8.

Abstract

Excess deaths during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have been largely attributed to cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, patterns in CVD hospitalizations after the first surge of the pandemic have not well-documented. Our brief report, examining trends in health care avoidance documents that CVD hospitalizations decreased in Chicago before significant burden of COVID-19 cases or deaths and normalized during the first COVID-19 surge. These data may help to inform health care systems responses in the coming months while mobilizing vaccinations to the population at large.

Keywords: COVID-19; cardiovascular disease; pandemic.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Chicago / epidemiology
  • Emergency Service, Hospital
  • Heart Failure*
  • Humans
  • Illinois
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2