Tag Archives: coronavirus

Introduction During the COVID-19 pandemic, difficult decisions have had to be made about access to a wide range of therapies and procedures. On 17 March 2020, National Health Service (NHS) bodies were instructed to create capacity to manage an expected surge of COVID-19 cases, and this included stopping all elective procedures by 15 April.1 Guidelines for triage of patients left those awaiting a primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) in a grey area: a case-by-case decision should be made, but that these procedures could be reasonably delayed.2 It has recently been highlighted that patients awaiting a primary preventio

The issue regarding use of RAS blockers in the context of COVID-19 has previously been reviewed.1,2 Most recently, emerging data suggest no harm is associated with use of ACE inhibitors or ARBs in COVID-19.3,4 In this perspective, we discuss a related aspect that was first raised by Acanfora and colleagues,5 namely, the potential benefit of neprilysin inhibitors and their role in modulating levels of RAS components. Similar to the situation for ACE inhibitors and ARBs, it seems there are mixed opinions on the utility of neprilysin inhibitors in COVID-19. In a recent review, it was postulated that increasing neprilysin activity might mitigate

Professor Nick Curzen Consensus statement In response to the need for guidance and clarity, national consensus statements have been published as a consensus between the British Cardiovascular Society, the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society (BCIS), NHS England/Public Heath England and the Heart Rhythm Society (in the case of the PPE document). The rationale and considerations behind these statements is discussed more fully elsewhere.2 In brief, the guidance for the three contentious areas listed above is summarised as follows. Firstly, the recommendation was that the default treatment for STEMI in the UK should remain primary PCI, unl