Recovery Rates of Diagnostic Cardiac Procedural Volume in Oceania 1 Year Into COVID-19: The IAEA Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocol Survey on COVID-19 (INCAPS COVID 2)

Anver Sethwala, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.
Cole B. Hirschfeld, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA.
Patricia O'Sullivan, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.
Mohamed Akbarally, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.
John Younger, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Brisbane, Qld, Australia University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.
Niels Van Pelt, Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand.
Michael Randazzo, Section of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Dora Lenturut-Katal, Port Moresby General Hospital, Papua New Guinea.
Joao V. Vitola, Quanta Diagnostico, Curitiba, Brazil.
Rodrigo Cerci, Quanta Diagnostico, Curitiba, Brazil.
Michelle C. Williams, BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Leslee J. Shaw, Blavatnik Family Women's Health Research Institute, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Ganesan Karthikeyan, Department of Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Todd C. Villines, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
Sharmila Dorbala, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Andrew D. Choi, The George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA.
Yosef A. Cohen, Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; Seymour, Paul and Gloria Milstein Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA.
Eli Malkovskiy, Seymour, Paul and Gloria Milstein Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA.
Thomas N. Pascual, Department of Science and Technology-Philippines, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, Manila, Philippines.
Yaroslav Pynda, Department of Science and Technology-Philippines, Philippine Nuclear Research Institute, Manila, Philippines.
Maurizio Dondi, Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging Section, Division of Human Health, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria.
Diana Paez, Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging Section, Division of Human Health, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria.
Andrew J. Einstein, Seymour, Paul and Gloria Milstein Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA; Department of Radiology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA.
Nathan Better, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Vic, Australia; Department of Cardiology, Cabrini Health, Malvern, Vic, Australia; Monash University and University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2-15-2024

Journal

Heart, lung & circulation

DOI

10.1016/j.hlc.2023.12.011

Keywords

COVID-19; Cardiac imaging; Cardiac investigations; Coronavirus

Abstract

AIM: The aim of this study was to assess the recovery rates of diagnostic cardiac procedure volumes in the Oceania Region, midway through the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: A survey was performed comparing procedure volumes between March 2019 (pre-pandemic), April 2020 (during first wave of COVID-19 pandemic), and April 2021 (1 year into the COVID-19 pandemic). A total of 31 health care facilities within Oceania that perform cardiac diagnostic procedures were surveyed, including a mixture of metropolitan and regional, hospital and outpatient, public and private sites, as well as teaching and non-teaching hospitals. A comparison was made with 549 centres in 96 countries in the rest of the world (RoW) outside of Oceania. The total number and median percentage change in procedure volume were measured between the three timepoints, compared by test type and by facility. RESULTS: A total of 11,902 cardiac diagnostic procedures were performed in Oceania in April 2021 as compared with 11,835 pre-pandemic in March 2019 and 5,986 in April 2020; whereas, in the RoW, 499,079 procedures were performed in April 2021 compared with 497,615 pre-pandemic in March 2019 and 179,014 in April 2020. There was no significant difference in the median recovery rates for total procedure volumes between Oceania (-6%) and the RoW (-3%) (p=0.81). While there was no statistically significant difference in percentage recovery been functional ischaemia testing and anatomical coronary testing in Oceania as compared with the RoW, there was, however, a suggestion of poorer recovery in anatomical coronary testing in Oceania as compared with the RoW (CT coronary angiography -16% in Oceania vs -1% in RoW, and invasive coronary angiography -20% in Oceania vs -9% in RoW). There was no statistically significant difference in recovery rates in procedure volume between metropolitan vs regional (p=0.44), public vs private (p=0.92), hospital vs outpatient (p=0.79), or teaching vs non-teaching centres (p=0.73). CONCLUSIONS: Total cardiology procedure volumes in Oceania normalised 1 year post-pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels, with no significant difference compared with the RoW and between the different types of health care facilities.

Department

Medicine

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