Hypertension & diabetes mellitus linked to Coronavirus infection – The Siasat Daily

In an article written by Lei Fang, George Karakiulakis, Michael Roth published in The Lancet on March 11, the authors have found links of COVID-19 infection with cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart diseases.

In the article titled Are patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus at increased risk for COVID-19 infection? the authors state that the most distinctive comorbidities of 32 non-survivors from a group of 52 intensive care unit patients with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the study by Xiaobo Yang and colleagueswere cerebrovascular diseases (22%) and diabetes (22%).

Citing another study which included 1099 patients with confirmed COVID-19, they asserted that 173 of them had severe disease with comorbidities of hypertension (237%), diabetes mellitus (162%), coronary heart diseases (58%), and cerebrovascular disease (23%).

They cited a third study which was conducted on 140 patients who were admitted to hospital with COVID-19, of them 30% had hypertension and 12% had diabetes.

Based on their study the authors hypothesise that diabetes and hypertension treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2)-stimulating drugs increases the risk of developing severe and fatal COVID-19.

Concluding that the sensitivity of an individual might result from a combination of both therapy and ACE2 polymorphism, the authors suggested that patients with cardiac diseases, hypertension, or diabetes, who are treated with ACE2-increasing drugs, are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 infection and, therefore, should be monitored for ACE2-modulating medications, such as ACE inhibitors or ARBs.

They further suggested that based on a PubMed search on Feb 28, 2020, they did not find any evidence to suggest that antihypertensive calcium channel blockers increased ACE2 expression or activity, therefore these could be a suitable alternative treatment in these patients.

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Hypertension & diabetes mellitus linked to Coronavirus infection - The Siasat Daily