New research from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai shows that patients who went to a hospital with a heart attack and were simultaneously sick with COVID-19 were three times more likely to die than patients experiencing a heart attack without a COVID-19 infection.
The study—published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Problems in Cardiology—also found that the Black, Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islander patients who had both COVID-19 and an acute myocardial infarction (AMI)—the medical term for a heart attack—fared worse than their white counterparts.
As investigators explain, the COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on gaps in cardiovascular care that already existed based on race and ethnicity. Addressing these disparities in healthcare urgently requires a multifaceted approach.