Prognosis of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients Receiving Receiving Antihypertensives

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,caused by the newly identified Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, has shown substantial global spread affecting over 2 million people and claiming over 120,000 lives to date. In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The spectrum of manifestations of COVID19 infection ranges from mild flu-like symptoms to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), with an associated fatality rate of 1.4%. The suggested mode of entry of the SARS-CoV-2 into the human respiratory epithelium is through the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) protein expressed on alveolar cell surfaces. This entry mechanism has sparked the interest of the scientific community. Preliminary epidemiological reports showed an increased risk of ARDS in hypertensive COVID-19 patients. This leads to the hypothesis that hypertensives treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) are at an increased risk of developing complicated COVID-19 infections . Other studies have refuted these claims as unsupported. Studies revealing the up regulation of ACE2 in cells of patients treated with ACE-I or ARBs were the underlying foundation for these claims. This study aims to assess the impact of ACE-I and/or ARBs on the prognosis of patients with COVID19.