COVID-19 Testing in Patients with Vascular Disorders - A Prospective Cohort Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Austria

Mohammad Mahdi Kasiri1*, Martina Mittlboeck2, Georgiana-Aura Giurgea3, Norbert Fortner1, Phillip Lirk4, Wolf Eilenberg1, Christoph Neumayer1 and Bernd Gollackner

1Department of General Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
2Section for Clinical Biometrics, Centre for Medical Statistics, Informatics, and Intelligent Systems, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
3Department of ‘Internal Medicine II, Clinical Divisions of Angiology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
4Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

^*Correspondance to: Mohammad Mahdi Kasiri 

 PDF  Full Text DOI: 10.25107/2474-1647.3402

Abstract

Background: To investigate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized patients with vascular disorders after implementing institutional and governmental safety measures in Austria. Methods: Vascular Patients (VPs) admitted to our tertiary care hospital were routinely tested for SARS-CoV-2 infection on a two days basis between March and December, 2020. The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 was compared between VPs and two independent Austrian populations. The results were also compared to a cohort of Health Care Personnel (HCP) working in close proximity to the study patients, tested weekly, between March and December, 2020. Results: A total of five (0.2%) SARS-CoV-2 positive patients were detected out of 2,243 included patients. The proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients during the first lockdown, post lockdown, and second lockdown was 0.34%, 0.17%, and 0.49% respectively. The estimated risk ratio for SARSCoV- 2 prevalence between the VPs and the general population was 0.05% (95% CI, 0.02% to 0.17%) during the second lockdown (p<0.0001). In 22 (5%) out of 441 members of the HCP cohort, SARSCoV- 2 infection was detected. However, no contagion has been observed between study patients and HCP during the entire observational period. Conclusion: Our study provides evidence of SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in Austrian patients with vascular disorders. VPs were less often infected than the general population. Thus, we demonstrate that continuous patient treatment and follow-up visits in a large tertiary care hospital during the pandemic are reasonable when in compliance with the common safety precautions. Routine SARSCoV- 2 testing of patients with vascular disorders is advisable to detect asymptomatic patients and avoid uncontrolled viral spread.

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Cite the article

Kasiri MM, Mittlboeck M, Giurgea G-A, Fortner N, Lirk P, Eilenberg W, et al. COVID-19 Testing in Patients with Vascular Disorders - A Prospective Cohort Study at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Austria. Clin Surg. 2022; 7: 3402..