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

Glob Heart. 2023 Nov 1;18(1):60. doi: 10.5334/gh.1272. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Background: Socioeconomic factors contribute to a more severe impact of COVID-19 in Latin American and Caribbean (LA&C) countries than in developed countries. Patients with a severe or critical illness can develop respiratory and cardiovascular complications.

Objective: To describe a 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, prospective, and hospital-based registry of patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection that required in-hospital treatment in LA&C. 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 during hospitalization or reported at discharge were cardiac arrhythmia (9.1%), decompensated heart failure (8.5%), and pulmonary embolism (3.9%). The number of patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was 1745 (53.5%), and median length of their 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 were 25.5% and 2.6%, respectively.

Conclusions: According to our findings, more than half of the LA&C population with COVID-19 assessed required management in ICU, with higher requirement of invasive mechanical ventilation and vasoactive support, resulting in a high in-hospital mortality and a considerable high 30-day post discharge rehospitalization and mortality.

Keywords: COVID-19; Caribbean; Coronavirus; Heart Failure; Latin America; SARS-CoV-2.

MeSH terms

  • Aftercare
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Cardiovascular Diseases* / epidemiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intensive Care Units
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Multicenter Studies as Topic
  • Observational Studies as Topic
  • Patient Discharge
  • Prospective Studies
  • SARS-CoV-2