• Juyi Li, Xiufang Wang, Jian Chen, Hongmei Zhang, and Aiping Deng.
• Department of Pharmacy, Key Laboratory for Molecular Diagnosis of Hubei Province, Tongji Medical College, The Central Hospital of Wuhan, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
• JAMA Cardiol. 2020 Jul 1; 5 (7): 825-830.

ImportanceData are lacking whether patients with hypertension who are taking angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) have increased severity or risk of mortality during hospitalization for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).ObjectiveTo investigate the association between ACEIs/ARBs and severity of illness and mortality in patients with hypertension hospitalized for COVID-19 infection.Design, Setting, And ParticipantsRetrospective, single-center case series of the 1178 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infections at the Central Hospital of Wuhan, China, from January 15 to March 15, 2020.Main Outcomes And MeasuresCOVID-19 was confirmed by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and epidemiologic, clinical, radiologic, laboratory, and drug therapy data were analyzed in all patients. The percentage of patients with hypertension taking ACEIs/ARBs was compared between those with severe vs nonsevere illness and between survivors vs nonsurvivors.ResultsOf the 1178 patients with COVID-19, the median age was 55.5 years (interquartile range, 38-67 years) and 545 (46.3%) were men. The overall in-hospital mortality was 11.0%. There were 362 patients with hypertension (30.7% of the total group; median age, 66.0 years [interquartile range, 59-73 years]; 189 [52.2%] were men), of whom 115 (31.8%) were taking ACEI/ARBs. The in-hospital mortality in the patients with hypertension was 21.3%. The percentage of patients with hypertension taking ACEIs/ARBs did not differ between those with severe and nonsevere infections (32.9% vs 30.7%; P = .65) nor did it differ between nonsurvivors and survivors (27.3% vs 33.0%; P = .34). Similar findings were observed when data were analyzed for patients taking ACEIs and those taking ARBs.Conclusions And RelevanceThis study provides clinical data on the association between ACEIs/ARBs and outcomes in patients with hypertension hospitalized with COVID-19 infections, suggesting that ACEIs/ARBs are not associated with the severity or mortality of COVID-19 in such patients. These data support current guidelines and societal recommendations for treating hypertension during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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