Incidence and Mortality Associated with Cardiovascular Medication among Hypertensive COVID-19 Patients in South Korea

Clinical outcomes of hypertensive patients with COVID-19 receiving calcium channel blockers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

We aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the overall effect of the preadmission/prediagnosis use of calcium channel blockers (CCBs) on the clinical outcomes in hypertensive patients with COVID-19. A systematic literature search with no language restriction was conducted in electronic databases in July 2021 to identify eligible studies. A random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled summary measure for outcomes of interest with the preadmission/prediagnosis use of CCBs relative to the nonuse of CCBs at 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The meta-analysis revealed a significant reduction in the odds of all-cause mortality with the preadmission/prediagnosis use of CCBs relative to the nonuse of CCBs (pooled OR = 0.65; 95% CI 0.49-0.86) and a significant reduction in the odds of severe illness with preadmission/prediagnosis use of CCBs relative to the nonuse of CCBs (pooled OR = 0.61; 95% CI 0.44-0.84), and is associated with adequate evidence to reject the model hypothesis of 'no significant difference' at the current sample size. The potential protective effects offered by CCBs in hypertensive patients with COVID-19 merit large-scale prospective investigations.

Use of Calcium Channel Blockers and the Risk of All-cause Mortality and Severe Illness in Patients With COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Owing to the reported safety concerns, we aimed to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the effect of preadmission/prediagnosis use of calcium channel blockers (CCBs) on the clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. A systematic literature search with no language restriction was conducted in electronic databases in July 2021 to identify eligible studies. The outcomes of interest were all-cause mortality and severe illness. A random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled summary measure for outcomes of interest with the preadmission/prediagnosis use of CCBs relative to nonuse CCBs, at 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The meta-analyses revealed no significant difference in the odds of all-cause mortality [pooled odds ratio (OR) = 0.82; 95% CI 0.68-1.00; n = 58,355] and in the odds of severe illness (pooled OR = 0.83; 95% CI 0.61-1.15; n = 46,091) respectively, with preadmission/prediagnosis use of CCBs relative to nonuse of CCBs. Nevertheless, subgroup analysis of studies originated from East Asia reported a significant reduction in the odds of all-cause mortality (pooled OR = 0.50; 95% CI 0.37-0.68) and the odds of severe illness (pooled OR = 0.51; 95% CI 0.33-0.78). There may not be safety concerns with the use of CCBs in patients with COVID-19, but their potential protective effects in the East Asian patients merit further investigations.