Blood pressure drugs may improve COVID-19 survival
31 August, 2020
An assessment of research has discovered that patients taking certain drugs for high blood pressure had a lower threat of serious COVID-19 and death than patients who weren't taking these medications.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been concerns that a kind of drug mostly used for treating hypertension (high blood circulation pressure) might worsen the infection.
The drugs involved are angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs).
Both classes of drugs work by interacting with ACE2, a receptor on the surface of cells involved with regulating blood circulation pressure. These receptors certainly are a common feature on cells throughout both the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that triggers COVID-19, uses ACE2 to get entry to its host cells in the human body. Some scientists speculated that taking ACE inhibitors or ARBs could boost the number of these receptors and therefore exacerbate the infection.
In May 2020, Medical News Today reported a relatively small study that found no link between taking the drugs and the chance of developing COVID-19.
Now, researchers in britain have pooled data from 19 studies in the most significant meta-analysis to research this question. Their work provides further reassurance that the drugs usually do not increase the threat of serious COVID-19 or death from the infection.
The study shows that long-term utilization of the medications - which persons with other cardiovascular diseases also take - could reduce infection severity and improve survival.
The analysis features in the most recent problem of Current Atherosclerosis Reports.
Critical events and survival
Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, U.K., collaborated with the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to investigate data on 28,872 patients with COVID-19.
They centered on patients admitted to the intestine care unit who experienced “critical events,” such as being on a ventilator.
One-third of the patients had hypertension, and one-quarter of all the patients were taking an ACE inhibitor or an ARB.
These large proportions among patients are likely the result of an elevated risk of severe COVID-19 among people with coronary disease, hypertension, and diabetes, says lead researcher Dr. Vassilios Vassiliou of UEA’s Norwich Medical School.
“But the important thing that we showed was that there is no evidence these medications might boost the severity of COVID-19 or threat of death,” says Dr. Vassiliou.
“On the other hand, we found that there is a significantly lower threat of death and critical outcomes, so they might, in fact, have a protective role - particularly in patients with hypertension.”
Among patients with hypertension who were taking the drugs, the chances of becoming critically ill or dying were 33% less than patients with hypertension who weren't taking them.
The results also recommend that there could be a lower risk among all patients taking the drugs, including those taking them for other cardiovascular conditions. However, this finding had not been statistically significant.
“As the world braces itself for a potential second wave of the infection, it really is particularly important that we understand the impact these medications have in COVID-19 patients. Our research provides substantial evidence to recommend continued usage of these medications if the patients were taking them already.”
- Dr. Vassilios Vassiliou
However, he emphasizes that the analysis did not investigate whether giving these drugs to other patients with COVID-19 might improve their outcome. The consequences of ACE inhibitors and ARBs in COVID-19 patients who aren't already taking them are unknown.
Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com
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