Arq. Bras. Cardiol. 2020; 114(6): 1072-1075
COVID-19 and Acute Coronary Events – Collateral Damage. A Case Report.
Luiz Eduardo Fonteles Ritt
, Mateus S. Viana
, Gustavo Freitas Feitosa, Adriano Martins de Oliveira, Fabio Solano Souza
, Eduardo Sahade Darzé
Discussion
Considering the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, quarantine periods have been declared in several cities in Brazil and worldwide, and people have been instructed to maintain social distancing in order to contain the rapid spread of the virus. Taken to the extreme, fear of becoming infected may result in typical symptoms of ACS being neglected or erroneously attributed to other less probable causes, delaying treatment and imposing avoidable risks to patients’ lives. We report a typical case of ACS in a patient with risk factors for atherosclerotic disease, who, driven by panic related to COVID-19, was unable to recognize the nature of his symptoms, thus delaying his trip to the emergency room until the moment that chest pain became unbearable. Furthermore, also due to concerns related to SARS-CoV-2 infection, the patient suspended use of angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). In spite of a door-to-balloon time of 57 minutes, as a result of prolonged ischemia time, the patient developed left ventricular systolic dysfunction, albeit asymptomatic.
[…]
927
