"Missing" acute coronary syndrome hospitalizations during the COVID-19 era in Greece: Medical care avoidance combined with a true reduction in incidence?
Michail I PapafaklisChristos S KatsourasGrigorios TsigkasKonstantinos ToutouzasPeriklis DavlourosGeorge N HahalisMaria S KoustaIoannis G StyliadisKonstantinos TriantafyllouLoukas PappasFotini TsiourantaniEfthymia VarytimiadiZacharias-Alexandros AnyfantakisNikolaos IakovisParaskevi GrammataHaralambos KarvounisAntonios ZiakasGeorge SianosDimitrios TziakasEvgenia PappaAnna DagreSotirios PatsilinakosAthanasios TrikasThomais LamprouIoannis MamarelisGeorgios KatsimagklisDimitri KarmpaliotisKaterina NakaLampros K MichalisPublished in: Clinical cardiology (2020)
We observed a reduction in ACS hospitalizations during the COVID-19 outbreak in a country with strict social measures, low community transmission, and no excess in mortality. Medical care avoidance behavior is an important factor for these observations, while a true reduction of the ACS incidence due to self-isolation/quarantining may have also played a role.