News Scan for Mar 07, 2022

COVID patients with heart defects may be at higher risk for severe diseaseHospitalized COVID-19 patients with congenital heart defects (CHDs) were more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), require invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and die than those without CHDs in the first 11 months of the pandemic, suggests a study published today in Circulation.Congenital heart defects, the most common birth defect in the world, occurs when the heart or blood vessels near the heart don't develop normally in utero.US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers mined claims data on hospitalized COVID-19 patients ages 1 to 64 years from March 2020 through January 2021 from the Premier Healthcare Database Special COVID-19 Release.

Vaccination status data weren't included in the study.Patients with and without CHD received care in the same hospitals, and the study accounted for differences in age, sex, race, health insurance type, and other high-risk conditions such as heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, Down syndrome, diabetes, and obesity.Among 235,638 eligible patients, 421 (0.2%) had CHD, and 68.4% had one or more chronic illnesses, compared with 58.8% of the 235,217 patients without CHD.More than half (53.9%) of CHD patients were admitted to an ICU (vs 42.6% of those without CHD), 24.0% needed IMV (vs 14.5%), and 11.2% died in the hospital (vs 6.9%).

Those at greatest risk for severe illness were those who had CHD and an underlying illness, were 50 years and older, and were men.Among CHD patients, 73% were older than 30 years, 61% were male, 55% were White, 19% were Hispanic, and 16% were Black.In an American Heart Association (AHA) press release, lead study author Karrie Downing, MPH, a CDC