Abstract 16860: Racial Disparity in COVID-19 Patients With Concomitant Myocardial Injury
Introduction: Cardiac involvement in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is common. Estimated that 30% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have an elevated troponin and these patients have worse prognosis when compared to patients without myocardial injury. Hypothesis: The purpose of this study is to investigate if there is any racial disparity in the in-hospital clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients with myocardial injury. Methods: This study included all COVID-19 positive patients within the MedStar Health System (11 acute hospitals in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area) with an elevation of troponin and a diagnosis of either ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) or Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI) based on International Classification of Diseases-10. Results: There was 3,589 COVID-19 admissions between March to June 2020. Of these, a total of 75 COVID-19 patients had either a STEMI or NSTEMI. Overall mean age was 70.9 ± 14.6 and 54.7% were male. Of these patients, the majority were African American (51; 68%) followed by Caucasians (15; 20%). The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 24.3%, with African Americans having a higher rate (73.7%) as compared to Caucasians (15.8%) p 0.05. Furthermore, African Americans trended toward having higher rates of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, intubation, and longer ICU stays; however, not statistically significant. Despite African Americans appearing to be a sicker cohort, inflammatory markers and myocardial involvement did not differ between the two groups (Table 1). Conclusions: Patients with COVID-19 and concomitant myocardial injury have a high in-hospital mortality rate. There is a racial disparity with African Americans having a higher rate of in-hospital mortality. However, inflammatory markers and myocardial injury does not differ between the two groups meaning other unidentified underlying issue may be the etiology for a sicker cohort in African Americans.