PEOPLE with cardiovascular disease have a higher risk of poor outcomes from Covid-19, but the interaction between cardiovascular medications and Covid-19 is unclear.
Analyzing hundreds of observational and research studies, scientists found that cardiovascular drugs do not affect Covid-19 outcomes.
The results indicate that people at risk of or with Covid-19 should continue taking cardiovascular medications as prescribed.
The researchers plan to continue to build their evidence base as new studies are published, creating a “living” systematic review.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, one of the most striking observations was the wide variety of health outcomes among people who developed the underlying viral infection.
For people taking drugs to manage cardiovascular disease, the lack of knowledge about possible interactions between Covid-19 and the cardiovascular system can be a source of concern.
Now, an analysis of hundreds of relevant studies has found that heart medications do not affect the severity of Covid-19, according to researchers at the University of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom. Their findings are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
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Cardiovascular disease is the most commonTrusted Source cause of death worldwide. It encompasses conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels, such as angina, coronary artery disease, and heart failure.
“When the Covid-19 pandemic started, reports started emerging that patients with cardiovascular disease were more likely to [contract] the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” study authors Sir Munir Pirmohamed, a professor of pharmacology and therapeutics, and Innocent Asiimwe, a doctoral student in molecular and clinical pharmacology, told Medical News Today.
“And for those who [had the virus], the disease was more severe and led to worse outcomes, such as longer hospitalization times and higher chances of death, compared to those who did not have cardiovascular disease.”
Tim Chico, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Sheffield, in the U.K., who was not involved in the study, explained to MNT that the virus binds to a protein present in several tissues and lines the blood vessels, thus playing a role in the renin-angiotensin system that regulates blood pressure.
This gives it the potential to worsen cardiovascular function in a number of ways and for it to affect people with preexisting cardiovascular disease more severely.
