Is the use of ACE inb/ARBs associated with higher in-hospital mortality in Covid-19 pneumonia patients?

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The present research aimed to determine the relation between the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE inh) and angiotensinogen receptor blockers (ARBs) and in-hospital mortality of hypertensive patients diagnosed with Covid-19 pneumonia. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In this retrospective study, we included 113 consecutive hypertensive patients admitted due to Covid-19 infection. In all patients, Covid-19 infection was confirmed with using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. All patients were on ACE inh/ARBs or other antihypertensive therapy unless no contraindication was present. The primary outcome of the study was the in-hospital all-cause mortality. RESULTS: = .032). Kaplan-Meir curve analysis displayed that patients on ACE inh/ARBs therapy had higher incidence of in-hospital death than those who were not. CONCLUSION: The present study has found that the use of ACE inh/ARBs therapy might be associated with an increased in-hospital mortality in patients who were diagnosed with Covid-19 pneumonia. It is likely that ACE inh/ARBs therapy might not be beneficial in the subgroup of hypertensive Covid-19 patients despite the fact that there might be the possibility of some unmeasured residual confounders to affect the results of the study.