According to a new study, hypertension increases the likelihood of heart damage and a severe disease phenotype in patients with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
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| Image: Patient Blood Pressure Monitoring | InStyleHealth |
There were 388 COVID-19 patients in the trial (mean
age 47.5 +15.2, 50.8 percent men), 75 of them had hypertension and the
other 313 were designated as normotensive controls. Biomarkers such as creatine
kinase (CK), CK-myocardial band (CK-MB), myoglobin, and lactate dehydrogenase
were used to assess cardiac damage (LDH).
Patients with hypertension had significantly greater
levels of markers than normotensive controls. Furthermore, correlation analysis
demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between systolic blood
pressure and CK (R, 0.124; p=0.01) and LDH (R, 0.103; p=0.05). Myoglobin (R,
0.113; p=0.06) and LDH (R, 0.089; p=0.09), on the other hand, were marginally
linked with diastolic blood pressure (R, 0.113; p=0.06).
Hypertension was also linked with cardiac damage
markers such as CK-MB (odds ratio [OR], 2.50, 95 percent confidence interval
[CI], 0.98–6.39; p=0.05) and LDH (OR, 2.64, 95 percent confidence interval
[CI], 1.53–4.57; p=0.001). Such interactions with CK and myoglobin were not found
to be statistically significant (p=0.59 and p=0.14, respectively).
"To our knowledge, this is the first publication
to provide comprehensive information on epidemiological, demographic, clinical,
laboratory, and radiological aspects of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the
setting of hypertension and resulting cardiac injury," the researchers
wrote.
"Our findings revealed a substantial link between
hypertension and cardiac damage in COVID-19 patients," they noted,
implying that better blood pressure control could help improve COVID-19 results.
Source: Sci Rep 2021;11:22389