Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Implantation of Intra-Cardiac Devices in Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Patients in the Western of Romania.

Background and

Objectives

COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted public health services worldwide, determining a significant decrease of elective cardiovascular (CV) procedures, especially in patients with associated chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus (DM). Materials and

Methods

This study was first started in 2019 in the western of Romania, to analyze the differences regarding the implantations of intra-cardiac devices such as permanent pacemakers (PPM), cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), or implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD) in 351 patients with and without DM and the situation was reanalyzed at the end of 2020.

Results

of the first 351 patients with and without DM. 28.20% of these patients had type 2 DM (p = 0.022), exceeding more than twice the prevalence of DM in the general population (11%). Patients with DM were younger (p = 0.022) and required twice as often CRT (p = 0.002) as non-diabetic patients. The state of these procedures was reanalyzed at the end of 2020, a dramatic decrease of all new device implantations being observed, both in non-diabetic and in patients with type 2 DM (79.37%, respectively 81.82%).

Conclusions

COVID-19 pandemic determined a drastic decrease, with around 75% reduction of all procedures of new intra-cardiac devices implantation, both in non-diabetics, this activity being reserved mostly for emergencies.