Are COVID-19 patients at increased risk to develop ischemic stroke and what are the first results of CAPACITY? Please find the answers in this DCVA COVID-19 update.
While the outbreak of COVID-19 seems to come to a relative and probably temporary rest in the Netherlands, our COVID-19-studies, CAPACITY, PRAETORIAN-COVID and COVID@HEART, continue to collect and analyse data on heart related research questions concerning COVID-19.
New STROCORONA research linked to CAPACITY-COVID Registry
Are COVID-19 patients at increased risk to develop ischemic stroke? This is the main question to be answered by this extension of the CAPACITY-COVID Registry. Wouter Sluis MSc, Annemijn Algra MSc, dr. Bart van der Worp and prof.dr. Jaap Kappelle from the University Medical Centre Utrecht started with observing ischemic stroke cases. They collect data on neurovascular history, drug use and stroke characteristics using the same registry as CAPACITY-COVID. After first contacts with Cardiology Networks, the Dutch Heart Foundation and a grassroots approach via young neurologists, the first seven centres have joined.
Join STROCORONA
If you are a health care professional working in the field of stroke and your hospital is already part of the CAPACITY-COVID collaboration, we can help you to join STROCORONA. If you are interested or have any questions about STROCORONA get in touch with Wouter or Annemijn.
New funding for PRAETORIAN-COVID
Prof. dr. Niels van Royen and dr. Roland van Kimmenade obtained new funding for PRAETORIAN-COVID in the "COVID-19 second wave programme" by ZonMw and NWO. With the additional funding, the PREATORIAN team can continue and expand their placebo controlled randomised clinical trial to study whether the use of Valsartan, an angiotensin receptor blocker, could lead to a reduction of observed complications, ICU admissions, and deaths in hospitalised COVID-19 patients.
First results CAPACITY
The CAPACITY-COVID Registry is an extension of the registry released by the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) and WHO in response to the emerging outbreak of COVID-19. Cardiovascular organisations, united in the Dutch CardioVascular Alliance, developed a protocol to collect the cardiovascular data we need. Recently, the CAPACITY team presented their first results. Almost 5,000 patients are included with the help of 57 hospitals in the Netherlands and nine other countries. The first results confirm the expectations that cardiovascular diseases are common amongst COVID-19 patients, 46.5% of the patients had cardiovascular issues before COVID-19, more men are affected and the average have a BMI of 28.1. The CAPACITY team is preparing a second report and a first publication. You will find this on the following websites as soon as they are published.