Cardio Round-up: New COVID-19 Updates; Dr. Payal Kohli Talks Retractions; and More

VIDEO: What Recent High-Profile Retractions Mean for COVID-19 (and Other) Research

DocWire News Section Adviser Payal Kohli, MD, talks about the recent retractions of hydroxychloroquine studies in NEJM and The Lancet, and what may come next for research in this area.

https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/cardiology-picks/hot-take-data-quality-retractions-and-what-it-means-for-medical-research/

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A Look at Who Is Having Out-of-Hospital Heart Attacks During the Pandemic

Researchers for this population-based, cross-sectional study compared more than 5,300 individuals experiencing cardiac arrest who received resuscitation via the New York City 911 EMS, and covered a period from March 1, 2020 through April 25, 2020. They then compared the data to the same period in 2019. Individuals experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest during the 2020 study period tended to be older (mean age, 72), were less likely to be white, and were more likely to have comorbidities like hypertension and diabetes, and were more likely to posses physical limitations of some kind.

https://www.docwirenews.com/cardiology/covid-19-out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest-emergency-medical-services/

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Significant Increase in Risk in Arrhythmias and Cardiac Arrest for COVID-19 Patients

This study included all patients with diagnosed COVID-19 who were admitted to a single center during a nine-week period. The authors looked at incidence of cardiac arrests, arrhythmias, and also inpatient mortality. After multivariable adjustment, admission to the ICU was associated with incident AFib (OR=4.68; 95% CI, 1.66 to 13.18), and age and incident AFib were independently associated with prevalent heart failure and bradyarrhythmias. Cardiac arrests were associated with in-hospital mortality.

https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/cardiology-picks/covid-increased-risk-for-cardiac-arrests-and-arrhythmias/

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Opioid Dependence May Increase Following Cardiac Surgery

https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/cardiology-picks/opioid-dependence-after-heart-surgery-cabg-heart-valve-procedures/

The retrospective cohort study, drawing on a national administrative claims database, included nearly 36,000 individuals who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG; 71.7%) and heart valve procedures (28.3%). All patient were naive at 180 days prior to the index procedure. persistent use of opioids post-surgery occurred in 2,609 patients who underwent CABG (10.2%) and in 821 valve surgery patients (8.1%; P=0.001). While the researchers reported that the likelihood of developing dependence decreased among heart valve patients, they also reported in increase in risk for women, those younger in age, those with preoperative congestive heart failure, patients with chronic lung disease, those with diabetes, those with kidney failure, those with chronic pain, and those with alcoholism.