comparing clinical parameters and outcomes of st-elevation myocardial infarction (stemi) patients with and without covid-19 infection

Objectives: during the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases increased. in this context, diagnosing st-elevation myocardial infarction (stemi) in covid-19 cases has become complex and challenging. objectives: this study explored the characteristics and compared clinical outcomes between covid-19 and non-covid-19 patients with stemi.methods: this prospective observational study was conducted on adult patients admitted with the diagnosis of stemi in the first 6 months of the pandemic. patients were evaluated for covid-19 diagnosis and divided into two groups: covid-19-positive and covid-19-negative. then, they were monitored during hospitalization and 6 months after discharge. results: of 131 patients admitted with stemi, 22.13% had covid-19 infection. most patients were men, and the covid-19-positive patients were older than non-infected patients (63.97±12.54 vs 58.19±10.97 years; p=0.039). the covid-19-infected patients had a higher prevalence of diabetes (p=0.003) and heart failure (p=0.008). they had higher levels of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (esr) (p=0.003) and neutrophil count (p=0.018), whereas lymphocyte count declined considerably in these patients (p=0.012). in addition, hospital length of stay was higher in the infected patients (6.64±4.30 vs 4.93±3.59 days; p=0.023). during the study period, the overall mortality rate in our setting was 8.82% and 17.24% in covid-19-negative and -positive patients, respectively. however, this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.195). discussion: although the current study employed a small sample, the findings suggest notable differences between the stemi patients with and without covid-19 infection regarding some parameters, especially underlying comorbidities. however, the difference in mortality was not significant.