Challenges in management of ST elevation myocardial infarction during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to our world and health-care system. Its high virulence and infectiousness directly infect people's respiratory system and indirectly disrupt our health-care infrastructure. In particular, ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a clinical emergency emphasizes on the establishment of care system to minimize delay to reperfusion. As such, the impact of COVID-19 on STEMI care, ranging from disease severity, patient delay, diagnostic difficulty, triage to selection of reperfusion strategy and postoperative care, is immense. Importantly, not only we have to save our patients, but we must also need to protect all health-care workers and prevent environmental contamination. Otherwise, in-hospital transmission can quickly evolve into nosocomial outbreak with staff infection and quarantine which lead to health-care system collapse. In this article, we will discuss the challenges in various aspects of STEMI management during COVID-19, as well as the mitigation measures we can take to optimize outcome and our future.