Latin-American Registry of Cardiovascular Disease and COVID-19: Final Results

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is a global disease caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Patients with a severe or critical illness can develop respiratory and cardiovascular complications. This study aimed to describe a Latin American and Caribbean (LA&C) population with COVID-19 to provide information related to this disease, in-hospital cardiovascular complications and in-hospital mortality. Methods: The CARDIO COVID-19-20 Registry is an observational, multicenter, ambispective, and hospital-based registry of patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection that required in-hospital treatment in LAC. Enrollment of patients started on May 01, 2020, and ended on June 30, 2021. Results: The CARDIO COVID-19-20 Registry included 3260 patients from 44 institutions of 14 LA&C countries. 63.2% patients were male and median age was 61.0 years old. Most common comorbidities were overweight/obesity (49.7%), hypertension (49.0%), and diabetes mellitus (26.7%). Most frequent cardiovascular complications were cardiac arrhythmia (9.1%), decompensated heart failure (8.5%), and pulmonary embolism (3.9%). 53.5% of patients were admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and median length of stay at the ICU was 10.0 days. Support required in ICU included invasive mechanical ventilation (34.2%), vasopressors (27.6%), inotropics (10.3%) and vasodilators (3.7%). Rehospitalization after 30-day post discharge was 7.3%. In-hospital mortality and 30-day post discharge was 25.5% and 2.6%, respectively. Conclusions: The LA&C population with COVID-19 patients and hospitalization, has a considerable burden of cardiovascular diseases related to a worse prognosis. It is necessary to carry out a more specific analysis to determine risk factors for cardiovascular outcome.