SARS-CoV-2 infection increases thrombus load in coronary arteries of patients with AMI: a retrospective study

Background: There is a lack of national and international literature on the effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection on thrombosis or increased risk of thrombosis in patients with acute myocardial infarction(AMI). Therefore, the aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the thrombus load within the coronary arteries of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection combined with AMI and to provide data support for the clinical management of patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) combined with AMI. Methods: A total of 174 patients with AMI in the cardiovascular internal medicine department of Zhangjiajie People's Hospital and Sangzhi People's Hospital of Sangzhi County were collected from 01 December 2022 to 01 June 2023, and were divided into two groups according to whether or not they were infected with SARS-CoV-2. Among them, 90 cases were in the COVID-19 group, and 84 cases were in the non-COVID-19 group. And the clinical data such as gender, age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, criminal vascularity, and thrombus load grading were retrospectively analyzed for these two groups of patients. Results: It was found that there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of gender, age, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia and infarcted offender vessel. Of the 90 patients in the COVID-19 group, 64 formed thrombi, of which the culprit vessels were the right coronary (RCA) 37 (57.8%), left anterior descending artery (LAD) 23 (35.9%), and the left main coronary artery/left circumflex artery (LM/LCX) 4 (6.3%). In the non-COVID-19 group, 49 of 84 patients formed thrombi, of which 28 (57.1%) were right coronary, 11 (22.4%) anterior descending, and 10 (20.4%) left main/revolving branches. Conclusion: In conclusion, COVID-19 infection combined with AMI leads to an increased risk of thrombosis and a tendency to be in a state of high thrombotic load. And interestingly, RCA is more prone to thrombus formation than LAD, LCX and LM.