Coronavirus patients with high blood pressure twice as likely to die, research suggests

Even greater risk among patients who are not taking hypertension medication

Patients 'should not discontinue or change their normal, antihypertensive treatment', researchers say (Anthony Devlin/PA)

Coronavirus patients with high blood pressure could be twice as likely to die than those without, research suggests.

The risk is even greater among patients who are not taking medication to control hypertension, scientists reported in the European Heart Journal.

Their findings were based on data from nearly 2,900 hospital patients in Wuhan, China, the original epicentre of the pandemic.

However, they said the result “should be interpreted cautiously” and added that “patients should not discontinue or change their normal, antihypertensive treatment”.

Professor Fei Li, from Xijing Hospital in China and one of the study authors, said: “It is important that patients with high blood pressure realise that they are at increased risk of dying from Covid-19.

“They should take good care of themselves during this pandemic and they need more attention if they are infected with the coronavirus.”

A team of scientists, which also included researchers from the National University of Ireland Galway, analysed data from 2,866 patients admitted to hospital with Covid-19 between 5-15 February, of whom 850 (29.5 per cent) had a medical history of hypertension.

Of those, 34 (4 per cent) died after becoming infected with coronavirus, compared to 22 out of 2,027 (11 per cent) without the condition.

After adjusting for factors such as age, sex and other medical conditions, the researchers said those with high blood pressure had more than a two-fold increased risk of dying from Covid-19.

Among the patients who were not taking medication for hypertension, 11 out 140 (7.9 per cent) died from coronavirus, compared with 23 out of 710 (3.2 per cent) of those consuming the medicines.

The researchers then pooled data from three other studies involving nearly 2,300 patients to investigate the role played by RAAS inhibitors, a class of drugs commonly used to treat blood pressure, such as ACE inhibitors and ARBs, in Covid-19 death risk.

They found the risk of death to be lower among the patients who took RAAS inhibitors compared with those treated with other drugs such as beta blockers, calcium channel blockers (CCBs) or diuretics.

Prof Li said: “In contrast to our initial hypothesis, we found that RAAS inhibitors, such as ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, were not linked to an increased risk of dying from Covid-19 and, in fact, may be protective.

“Therefore, we suggest that patients should not discontinue or change their usual antihypertensive treatment unless instructed by a physician.”

A randomised clinical trial testing the effects of blood pressure medication on Covid-19 patients is set to run at the National University of Ireland Galway as part of the next steps in the research.

Additional reporting by Press Association