During hospitalization, 12 patients in the non-ACEI/ARB group (48%) were categorized into severe subgroups and one patient died. In contrast, in the ACEI/ARB group, only 4 patients (23.5%) were categorized into severe subgroups and no patients died (Figure 1(A)). The percentage of severe cases in the ACEI/ARB group was higher than that in the non-ACEI/ARB group, but this difference was not significant, possibly due to the small number of clinical cases. We next examined the effects of taking ACEI or ARB drugs on laboratory findings of COVID-19 patients with hypertension. As shown in Figure 1(B), there was a trend toward lower IL-6 levels in patients from the ACEI/ARB group. No marked variation in C-reactive protein (CRP) was observed between the two groups (Figure 1(B)). The absolute number of CD3+ and CD8+ T cells in the ACEI/ARB group was significantly higher than that in the non-ACEI/ARB group. There were no significant changes in CD4+ T cell counts between the two groups (Figure 1(C)). In addition, although the viral load was not different between the two groups at hospital admission, the peak viral load during hospitalization in the ACEI/ARB group was significantly lower than that in the non-ACEI/ARB group (Figure 1(D)). Other laboratory findings, such as white blood cell counts, neutrophil counts, platelet counts, and lactate dehydrogenase, are shown in supplementary Table S3, and no significant differences were observed between the two groups.
Figure 1. Summarized clinical, inflammatory, immunological, and viral findings in the non-ACEI/ARB group and the ACE/ARB group. (A) The disease severity distribution of the two groups during hospitalization. (B) The levels of IL-6 and CRP in peripheral blood. (C) Absolute numbers of CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood. (D) Viral load on hospital admission and maximum value during hospitalization. The data are expressed as the median and IQR. An unpaired t test was used, and P < 0.05 was considered significant.