Published online Jul 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i20.5462
Peer-review started: April 6, 2021
First decision: April 28, 2021
Revised: April 30, 2021
Accepted: May 24, 2021
Article in press: May 24, 2021
Published online: July 16, 2021
Processing time: 91 Days and 22.1 Hours
The World Health Organization reported that 28637952 people worldwide had been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), by September 13.
The aim was to investigate whether long-term use of renin-angiotensin-aldoste
This was a retrospective analysis of lung computed tomography (CT) data and laboratory values of COVID-19 patients with hypertension who were admitted to Huoshenshan Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei Province, between February 18 and March 31, 2020. Patients were divided into two groups. Group A included 19 people who were long-term users of RAAS inhibitors for hypertension; and group B included 28 people who were randomly selected from the database and matched with group A by age, sex, basic diseases, and long-term use of other antihypertensive drugs. All patients underwent a series of CT and laboratory tests. We compared the most severe CT images of the two groups and the laboratory examination results within 2 d of the corresponding CT images.
The time until the most severe CT images from the onset of COVID-19 was 30.37 ± 14.25 d group A and 26.50 ± 11.97 d in group B. The difference between the two groups was not significant (t = 1.01, P = 0.32). There were no significant differences in blood laboratory values, C-reactive protein, markers of cardiac injury, liver function, or kidney function between the two groups. There was no significant difference in the appearance of the CT images between the two groups. The semiquantitative scores of each involved lobe were 11.84 ± 5.88 in group A and 10.36 ± 6.04 group B. The difference was not significantly different (t = 0.84, P = 0.41).
Chest CT is an important imaging tool to monitor the characteristics of COVID-19 and the degree of lung injury. Chronic use of RAAS inhibitors is not related to the severity of COVID-19, and it does not worsen the clinical process.
Core Tip: We investigated whether the use of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors by coronavirus disease 2019 patients with hypertension aggravated the severity of pneumonia by comparing the differences in computed tomography images.