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

According to a recent report, 91.1% of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 were diagnosed pneumonia during hospitalization, including 15.7% of them with severe disease. 2 However, the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms by which this virus causes disease remain unclear. SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV are both coronaviruses, and the two viruses share 79% identity in nucleotide sequence. 3 Early studies has established that SARS-CoV uses This retrospective study complied with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (HPHTCM)'s ethical review board (Clinical Ethical Approval No. HBZY2020-C15-01). HPHTCM is responsible for the treatments of COVID-19 assigned by the Wuhan government. Patients with confirmed COVID-19 according to the guideline of SARS-CoV-2 (The Fifth Trial Version of the Chinese National Health Commission) admitted into HPHTCM from January 5 to February 22, 2020, were included for initial screen. 23 COVID-19 patients with preexisting hypertension were retrospectively allocated into two subgroups, ARBs/ACEIs and non-ARBs/ACEIs group, according to their usage of antihypertensive drugs. Age-and sex-matched cases were randomly selected from the remaining COVID-19 patients without hypertension as non-hypertension controls. The clinical outcomes (ie, discharges, mortality, length of stay)