Deans' stroke musings: ACE inhibitors, ARBs do not pose additional risk in COVID-19 in two meta-analyses

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, December 7, 2020

ACE inhibitors, ARBs do not pose additional risk in COVID-19 in two meta-analyses

Great since I'm on Nifedipine is in a class of medications called calcium-channel blockers.

ACE inhibitors, ARBs do not pose additional risk in COVID-19 in two meta-analyses

Use of ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers was not associated with an increased rate of COVID-19 infection or mortality, according to two meta-analyses reported at the virtual American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.

Yujiro Yokoyama, MD, surgeon at St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Easton Hospital, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and colleagues conducted two meta-analyses to compare mortality and susceptibility to COVID-19 infection between patients treated and not treated with ACE inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers. The first meta-analysis evaluated the impact on rate of positive COVID-19 testing and the second meta-analysis evaluated the impact on in-hospital mortality for patients with COVID-19.

Researchers examined MEDLINE and EMBASE databases to identify studies that detailed patients treated with ACE inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blocks. Their search yielded three eligible studies for the first meta-analysis and 14 eligible studies for the second meta-analysis.

Positive COVID-19 testing rates were similar for patients treated with ACE inhibitors compared with those who did not receive ACE inhibitors (OR = 0.96; 95% CI, 0.88-1.04; P = .69) and for patients treated with angiotensin receptor blockers compared with those not treated with angiotensin receptor blockers (OR = 0.99; 95% CI, 0.91-1.08; P = .35), according to the abstract.

Rates of in-hospital mortality for patients who tested positive for COVID-19 infection were similar between patients treated with ACE inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers and those who did not receive either medication (HR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.64-1.2; P = .42), according to the abstract.

In a subanalysis restricted to studies that only investigated patients with hypertension, use of ACE inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers was associated with a significant reduction in in-hospital mortality compared with no use of either medication (HR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.48-0.87), according to the abstract.

“Our study results confirm that patients already taking ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers should not discontinue takin them due to COVID-19 infection,” Yokoyama said in a press release. “Both medications have proven benefits for heart and kidney disease, and this further confirms previous findings that ACE inhibitors do not pose additional risk with COVID-19.”

Earlier this year, the AHA, Heart Failure Society of America and American College of Cardiology issued a joint statement calling for the continuation of ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers during the COVID-19 pandemic in patients prescribed these medications for HF, hypertension and/or ischemic heart disease, and recommended that patients with COVID-19 should be fully evaluated before any treatment changes.