According to a study published Friday in the medical journal European Heart Journal, patients with hypertension admitted to the hospital for an infection with the coronavirus have two times more chance of dying than those who do not suffer from this pathology. "It is important for patients with high blood pressure to realize that they have an increased risk of death of the Covid-19," says one of the authors of the study, Pr Fei Li, a cardiologist at the hospital Xijing of Xian in China.
hypertensive patients who have stopped taking their treatment pose a far greater risk of death from novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 after admission to the hospital compared to those who are taking their medication, according to this work. For this observational study, researchers chinese and irish have reviewed retrospectively the data of those admitted between February 5 and march 15 in the hospital Huoshenshan of Wuhan.
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Studies and purely observational
Almost 30 % of persons admitted, to be 850 patients were suffering from hypertension. 4 % of these patients died, compared to 1.1 % for those who were not suffering from high blood pressure. After adjusting for differences in age, sex and state of health, the researchers calculated that the risk of dying of Covid for a hypertensive patient admitted to the hospital was two times higher than the other. A further analysis incorporating data from this hospital with those of three other studies showed that patients who were taking a class of blood pressure drugs, inhibitors of the Renin-Angiotensin System (RAAS) had a lower risk of death compared to those treated with other medications.
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But the authors call for caution on this point, considering the low number of patient concerned. "We suggest patients do not stop or change their usual treatment for hypertension unless it is requested by their physician," explains one of the authors of the study, Pr Ling Tao from the hospital Xijing. The authors emphasize that these studies are purely observational, not based on clinical trials, and that new research would be needed to be able to make clinical recommendations more definitive.
