Evaluation of Clinical Features and Prognosis in COVID-19 Patients with Hypertension: A Single-center Retrospective Observational Study

Abstract

Objective:The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of hypertension on the clinical severity and prognosis of Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients.Methods:In this retrospective observational study, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) positive COVID-19 patients over the age of 18 years who were hospitalized in Bezmialem Vakıf University between March and May 2020 were included. The patients were divided into two groups as hypertensive and non-hypertensive and compared for clinical, laboratory and prognosis.Results:Two hundred sixty COVID-19 patients were included in the study, 55.4% of them were male and the mean (± standard deviation) age was 54.1±15.5 years. Hypertensive patients were older (64.6±11.5 and 47.2±13.9) (p<0.001), had higher diabetes mellitus rates (41.7% and 11.5%, p<0.001) and more complicated with chronic renal failure (16.5% vs. 2.5%, p<0.001).While 56.1% of patients were desaturated in the hypertensive group (SaPO2 <93%), this rate was 32.3% in the group without hypertension (p<0.001). While oxygen therapy was needed in 39.8% of hypertensive patients, this rate was 25.5% in non-hypertensive patients (p=0.001). The rate of transfer to intensive care unit (23.3%) and in-hospital mortality rate (17.5%) in hypertensive patients were higher than those in non-hypertensive patients (11.5% and 8.8%, respectively) (p=0.01 and p=0.025).Conclusion:Our study shows that additional attention should be paid to prevent poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients with hypertension.

Keywords

• covid-19
• hypertension
• severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2
• prognosis