COVID-19 Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 8 pp 10853—10865
Does taking an angiotensin inhibitor increase the risk for COVID-19? – a systematic review and meta-analysis
- 1 Heart Center and Beijing Key Laboratory of Hypertension, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Chaoyang 100020, Beijing, China
- 2 Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Fengtai 100054, Beijing, China
- 3 Department of Interventional Neuroradiology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Fengtai 100070, Beijing, China
- 4 Yuetan Community Health Service Center, Fuxing Hospital, Capital Medical University, Xicheng 100045, Beijing, China
- 5 Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, VIC 3168, Australia
- 6 Heart Center, Fuxing Hospital, Capital Medical University, Xicheng 100038, Beijing, China
Received: November 13, 2020 Accepted: January 4, 2021 Published: April 22, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202902How to Cite
Copyright: © 2021 Ma et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Because SARS-COV2 entry into cells is dependent on angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) increase ACE2 activity, the safety of ACEI/ARB usage during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a controversial topic. To address that issue, we performed a meta-analysis following The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Searches of the Embase, MEDLINE, PubMed, and Cochrane Library databases identified 16 case-control studies examining the effect of ACEI/ARB on the incidence of COVID-19 and its severity. ACEI/ARB usage was associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 morbidity (odds ratio (OR) 1.20, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-1.33, P=0.001) among the general population but not in a hypertensive population (OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.90-1.21, P=0.553). ACEI/ARB usage was not associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 morbidity (coefficient 1.00, 95% CI 1.00-1.00, P=0.660) when we adjusted for hypertension in the general population. ACEI/ARB usage was also not associated with an increased risk of severe illness (OR 0.90, 95%CI 0.55-1.47, P=0.664) or mortality (OR 1.43, 95%CI 0.97-2.10, P=0.070) in COVID-19 patients. Our meta-analysis revealed that ACEI/ARB usage was not associated with either the increased risk of SARS-COV2 infection or the adverse outcomes in COVID-19 patients.