Recently, in a study published in the European Heart Journal, scientists from Xijing Hospital and other institutions found that compared with patients without hypertension, hypertensive patients had twice the risk of death from covid-19 infection. In addition, hypertension patients who did not take drugs to control blood pressure might have a higher risk of death due to covid-19 infection.
In this paper, the data of 2866 patients admitted to Wuhan huoshenshan hospital from February 5 to March 15, 2020 were analyzed. Among them, 850 patients (29.5%) had a history of hypertension According to Professor Fei, 34 (4%) of 850 hypertensive patients died of covid-19 infection, while 22 (1.1%) of 2027 non hypertensive patients died of covid-19 infection. After adjusting for factors such as age, gender and other medical conditions, the researchers found that hypertensive patients had a 2.12 times higher risk of dying from covid-19 than non hypertensive patients.
Among the non treated hypertensive patients, 11 (7.9%) of 140 patients died of covid-19, while 23 (3.2%) of 710 patients who took medicine died. After adjusting for confounding factors, the risk of death due to covid-19 in the former was 2.17 times higher than that in the latter. In this comprehensive analysis, the data of patients from huoshenshan hospital were compared with the data of nearly 2300 patients in three other studies To investigate mortality in patients treated with drugs that target the renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS), including angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), and other non RAAS inhibitors used to treat hypertension, including beta blockers, calcium channel blockers (CCBS), or diuretics Etc.
The researchers found that 183 patients treated with RAAS inhibitors had a lower mortality rate than 527 patients treated with other drugs, and this finding should be treated with caution, as the number of patients in this analysis is small, so it may be accidental. Therefore, patients with hypertension need to recognize that their risk of death from covid-19 is increased, and they should be more cautious in this pandemic. In addition, 140 patients who were hospitalized with covid-19 stopped treatment of hypertension for various reasons, which may be directly related to the higher risk of death due to covid-19 infection.
RAAS inhibitors, such as ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, may not be associated with an increased risk of death from covid-19 infection. In fact, these drugs can also provide protection to patients; therefore, patients should not stop or change their routine antihypertensive treatment unless instructed by a doctor. In a previous study published in the International Journal of medicine, researchers found that antihypertensive drugs such as ACE inhibitors or ARBs may not be associated with an increased risk of death in covid-19 positive patients.
Finally, the researchers said that this is only a retrospective observational study, which can not prove that there is a causal relationship between RAAS inhibitors and the risk of covid-19 death. Other limitations include the inability to include all relevant confounding factors, such as data such as ECG is not recorded in detail, and prospective studies are needed to observe the long-term effects of RAAS inhibitors.