Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers and Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors Usage is Associated with Improved Inflammatory Status and Clinical Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients With Hypertension

Guang Yang; Zihu Tan; Ling Zhou; Min Yang; Lang Peng; Jinjin Liu; Jingling Cai; Ru Yang; Junyan Han; Yafei Huang; Shaobin He

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03. 31.20038935 doi: medRxiv preprint suggested by several groups. 12, 32 However, the clinical evidence is still missing. In this report, we found that in the 43 COVID-19 patients with hypertension treated with ARBs/ACEIs before and after diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection, the concentrations of inflammatory CRP and procalcitonin were significantly lower compared with those treated with non-ARBs/ACEIs. ARBs/ACEIs treatment also resulted in a lower death rate and less critical cases in these patients. We did not find the concentrations of IL-6 in the ARBs/ACEIs group to be significantly different from that in the non-ARBs/ACEIs controls, which suggests that ARBs/ACEIs treatment alone might not be efficient in modulating the production of this cytokine. However, combining of ARBs/ACEIs and IL-6R blockade could presumably have a synergic effect in regulating the elevated inflammatory response in COVID-19 patients with preexisting hypertension, which could be tested in future clinical trials.