Myocarditis mortality with and without COVID-19: insights from a national registry

Myocarditis incidence and hospital mortality from 2007 to 2022: insights from a nationwide registry

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the burden of disease of myocarditis in Germany and identify similarities and differences in myocarditis with or without COVID-19.

METHODS

All patients hospitalized with myocarditis in Germany were included in this nationwide retrospective analysis. Data were retrieved from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (DESTATIS) for the years from 2007 to 2022. The primary endpoint was hospital mortality.

RESULTS

A total of 88,159 patients hospitalized with myocarditis were analyzed. Annual cases increased from 5100 in 2007 to 6593 in 2022 (p < 0.001 for trend) with higher incidence during winter months. Incidence per 100,000 inhabitants was 6.2 in 2007 rising to 7.8 in 2022 (p < 0.001 for trend). Hospital mortality remained constant at an average of 2.44% (p = 0.164 for trend). From 2020 to 2022, 1547/16,229 (9.53%) patients were hospitalized with both, myocarditis and COVID-19 (incidence 0.62/100,000 inhabitants and 180/100,000 hospitalizations with COVID-19). These patients differed significantly in most patient characteristics and had a higher rate of hospital mortality compared to myocarditis without COVID-19 (12.54% vs. 2.26%, respectively, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Myocarditis hospitalizations were slowly rising over the past 16 years with hospital mortality remaining unchanged. Incidence of hospitalizations with combined myocarditis and COVID-19 was low, but hospital mortality was high.

The Clinical Impact of SARS-CoV-2 on Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND

This study aims to understand and describe the clinical impact of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection in patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM).

METHODS

A data repository of over 6.6 million patients in a large metropolitan (Chicago IL) healthcare system was queried to identify adults with a history of HCM and COVID-19 infection between 2019 and 2021. Propensity score-matched analysis was performed based on age, sex, BMI, and elements of the cardiovascular history, including tobacco use, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, myocardial injury, and heart failure.

RESULTS

Individuals with HCM and COVID-19 infection had more total hospitalizations (41.6 v 23 per 100 persons, p < 0.01), more heart-failure-related hospitalizations (24.2 v 8.7 per 100-persons, p < 0.01), more non-ST elevation myocardial injury (NSTEMI) hospitalizations (8.6 v 4.6 per 100-persons, p < 0.01), and increased mortality (10.8 v 5 per 100-persons, p < 0.01) compared to HCM patients without a history of COVID-19 infection. Patients with HCM and COVID-19 were also noted to have a higher peak CRP when compared to those without prior COVID-19 (Inter-quartile range of 9.0-106.9 v 1.8-21.3, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

In patients with HCM, COVID-19 infection is associated with increased incidence of myocardial injury, increased number of total and heart-failure specific hospitalizations, and increased mortality.

Global, Regional, and National Burden of Myocarditis in 204 Countries and Territories From 1990 to 2019: Updated Systematic Analysis

BACKGROUND

Myocarditis is characterized by high disability and mortality, and imposes a severe burden on population health globally. However, the latest global magnitude and secular trend of myocarditis burden have not been reported.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to delineate the epidemiological characteristics of myocarditis burden globally for optimizing targeted prevention and research.

METHODS

Based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, the myocarditis burden from 1990 to 2019 was modeled using the Cause of Death Ensemble tool, DisMod-MR, and spatiotemporal Gaussian regression. We depicted the epidemiology and trends of myocarditis by sex, age, year, region, and sociodemographic index (SDI). R program version 4.2.1 (R Project for Statistical Computing) was applied for all statistical analyses, and a 2-sided P-value of <.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

The number of incident cases (1,268,000) and deaths (32,450) associated with myocarditis in 2019 increased by over 1.6 times compared with the values in 1990 globally. On the other hand, the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) and age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) decreased slightly from 1990 to 2019. The disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) decreased slightly in the past 3 decades, while the age-standardized DALY rate (ASDR) decreased greatly from 18.29 per 100,000 person-years in 1990 to 12.81 per 100,000 person-years in 2019. High SDI regions always showed a more significant ASIR. The ASIR slightly decreased in all SDI regions between 1990 and 2019. Middle SDI regions had the highest ASMR and ASDR in 2019. Low SDI regions had the lowest ASMR and ASDR in 2019. The age-standardized rates (ASRs) of myocarditis were higher among males than among females from 1990 to 2019 globally. All ASRs among both sexes had a downward trend, except for the ASMR among males, which showed a stable trend, and females had a more significant decrease in the ASDR than males. Senior citizens had high incident cases and deaths among both sexes in 2019. The peak numbers of DALYs for both sexes were noted in the under 1 age group in 2019. At the national level, the estimated annual percentage changes in the ASRs had significant negative correlations with the baseline ASRs in 1990.

CONCLUSIONS

Globally, the number of incident cases and deaths associated with myocarditis have increased significantly. On the other hand, the ASRs of myocarditis showed decreasing trends from 1990 to 2019. Males consistently showed higher ASRs of myocarditis than females from 1990 to 2019 globally. Senior citizens gradually predominated in terms of myocarditis burden. Policymakers should establish targeted control strategies based on gender, region, age, and SDI; strengthen aging-related health research; and take notice of the changes in the epidemic characteristics of myocarditis.

Catheter based left atrial appendage closure in-hospital outcomes in Germany from 2016 to 2020

BACKGROUND

New and refined catheter based left atrial appendage (LAA) closure devices have been introduced in the past decade. The procedure can be performed using either an endocardial occlusion device or an epicardial loop stitch. We aimed to analyzed recent procedural safety.

METHODS

Catheter based LAA closures were identified in a complete nationwide German dataset via ICD and OPS codes from 2016 to 2020.

RESULTS

From 2016 to 2020, 28,039 endocardial and 213 epicardial occlusions were performed. Numbers of endocardial procedures increased from 5259 in 2016 to 5917 in 2020 (p = 0.020) in 387 centers with shifting of patients' characteristics towards older age (β = 0.29, p < 0.001), more heart failure (β = 1.01, p < 0.001) and renal disease (β = 0.67, p = 0.001) and without a significant trend for in-hospital safety except more bleeding (β = 0.12, p = 0.05). In-hospital major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) or pericardial puncture were independent on center procedure numbers. The loop stitch procedure was performed in 15 centers. Patients were younger (76.17 ± 8.16 vs. 73.16 ± 8.99, p < 0.001) and had a lower comorbidity index (2.29 ± 1.93 vs. 1.92 ± 1.64, p = 0.005). Adjusted risk difference for pericardial effusion (8.04%; 95% CI 3.01-13.08%; p = 0.002) and pericardial puncture (6.60%; 95% CI 3.85-9.35%; p < 0.001) was higher for the loop stitch procedure, while risk of bleeding (- 1.85%; 95% CI - 3.01 to - 0.69%; p = 0.002), intracerebral bleeding (- 0.37%; 95% CI - 0.59 to - 0.15%; p = 0.001) and shock (- 1.41%; 95% CI - 2.44 to - 0.39%; p = 0.007) was lower. No significant difference was observed for in-hospital MACCE.

CONCLUSIONS

Endocardial occlusion was the major catheter based LAA closure procedure in Germany without improvements in in-hospital safety from 2016 to 2020. In-hospital MACCE was independent on endocardial LAAC center volumes. Conclusions on the comparison between the two procedure types must be made cautious as the LAA loop stitch occlusion was utilized limited in a minor number of centers. Catheter based left atrial appendage closure in-hospital outcomes in Germany from 2016 to 2020.

COVID-19, Myocarditis and Pericarditis

Viral infections are a leading cause of myocarditis and pericarditis worldwide, conditions that frequently coexist. Myocarditis and pericarditis were some of the early comorbidities associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19. Many epidemiologic studies have been conducted since that time concluding that SARS-CoV-2 increased the incidence of myocarditis/pericarditis at least 15× over pre-COVID levels although the condition remains rare. The incidence of myocarditis pre-COVID was reported at 1 to 10 cases/100 000 individuals and with COVID ranging from 150 to 4000 cases/100 000 individuals. Before COVID-19, some vaccines were reported to cause myocarditis and pericarditis in rare cases, but the use of novel mRNA platforms led to a higher number of reported cases than with previous platforms providing new insight into potential pathogenic mechanisms. The incidence of COVID-19 vaccine-associated myocarditis/pericarditis covers a large range depending on the vaccine platform, age, and sex examined. Importantly, the findings highlight that myocarditis occurs predominantly in male patients aged 12 to 40 years regardless of whether the cause was due to a virus-like SARS-CoV-2 or associated with a vaccine-a demographic that has been reported before COVID-19. This review discusses findings from COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine-associated myocarditis and pericarditis considering the known symptoms, diagnosis, management, treatment, and pathogenesis of disease that has been gleaned from clinical research and animal models. Sex differences in the immune response to COVID-19 are discussed, and theories for how mRNA vaccines could lead to myocarditis/pericarditis are proposed. Additionally, gaps in our understanding that need further research are raised.