PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Kunwardeep S Bhatia AU - Hari P Sritharan AU - Jonathan Ciofani AU - Justin Chia AU - Usaid K Allahwala AU - Karina Chui AU - Daniel Nour AU - Sheran Vasanthakumar AU - Dhanvee Khandadai AU - Pavithra Jayadeva AU - Rohan Bhagwandeen AU - David Brieger AU - Christopher Choong AU - Anthony Delaney AU - Girish Dwivedi AU - Benjamin Harris AU - Graham Hillis AU - Bernard Hudson AU - George Javorski AU - Nigel Jepson AU - Logan Kanagaratnam AU - George Kotsiou AU - Astin Lee AU - Sidney T Lo AU - Andrew I MacIsaac AU - Brendan McQuillan AU - Isuru Ranasinghe AU - Antony Walton AU - James Weaver AU - William Wilson AU - Andy S C Yong AU - John Zhu AU - William Van Gaal AU - Leonard Kritharides AU - Clara K Chow AU - Ravinay Bhindi TI - Association of hypertension with mortality in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 AID - 10.1136/openhrt-2021-001853 DP - 2021 Dec 01 TA - Open Heart PG - e001853 VI - 8 IP - 2 4099 - http://openheart.bmj.com/content/8/2/e001853.short 4100 - http://openheart.bmj.com/content/8/2/e001853.full SO - Open Heart2021 Dec 01; 8 AB - Objective To assess whether hypertension is an independent risk factor for mortality among patients hospitalised with COVID-19, and to evaluate the impact of ACE inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) use on mortality in patients with a background of hypertension.Method This observational cohort study included all index hospitalisations with laboratory-proven COVID-19 aged ≥18 years across 21 Australian hospitals. Patients with suspected, but not laboratory-proven COVID-19, were excluded. Registry data were analysed for in-hospital mortality in patients with comorbidities including hypertension, and baseline treatment with ACE inhibitors or ARBs.Results 546 consecutive patients (62.9±19.8 years old, 51.8% male) hospitalised with COVID-19 were enrolled. In the multivariable model, significant predictors of mortality were age (adjusted OR (aOR) 1.09, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.12, p<0.001), heart failure or cardiomyopathy (aOR 2.71, 95% CI 1.13 to 6.53, p=0.026), chronic kidney disease (aOR 2.33, 95% CI 1.02 to 5.32, p=0.044) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (aOR 2.27, 95% CI 1.06 to 4.85, p=0.035). Hypertension was the most prevalent comorbidity (49.5%) but was not independently associated with increased mortality (aOR 0.92, 95% CI 0.48 to 1.77, p=0.81). Among patients with hypertension, ACE inhibitor (aOR 1.37, 95% CI 0.61 to 3.08, p=0.61) and ARB (aOR 0.64, 95% CI 0.27 to 1.49, p=0.30) use was not associated with mortality.Conclusions In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, pre-existing hypertension was the most prevalent comorbidity but was not independently associated with mortality. Similarly, the baseline use of ACE inhibitors or ARBs had no independent association with in-hospital mortality.Data are available upon reasonable request.