Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Hypertensive Patients Infected with COVID-19: A Retrospective Study

Liqin Chen,1,* Jiankun Chen,1,2,* Yuwan Wu,1 Jinyao Zhong,1 Fuzhen Zhou,1 Yuntao Liu,1,2 Aiting Xu,3 Jiqiang Li,1,2 Huayang Cai1 1The Second Affiliated Hospital (Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine), Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Prevention and Treatment of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Guangzhou, 510006, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3The People’s Hospital of Yangjiang, Yangjiang, 529500, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jiqiang Li; Huayang Cai Email lijiqiangjizhen@163.com ; caihuayang@gzucm.edu.cnBackground: Hypertension has been reported as the most prevalent comorbidity in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This retrospective study aims to compare the clinical characteristics and outcomes in COVID-19 patients with or without hypertension.Methods: A total of 944 hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were included from January to March 2020. Information from the medical record, including clinical features, radiographic and laboratory results, complications, treatments, and clinical outcomes, were extracted for the analysis.Results: A total of 311 (32.94%) patients had comorbidity with hypertension. In COVID-19 patients with hypertension, the coexistence of type 2 diabetes (56.06% vs 43.94%), coronary heart disease (65.71% vs 34.29%), poststroke syndrome (68.75% vs 31.25%) and chronic kidney diseases (77.78% vs 22.22%) was significantly higher, while the coexistence of hepatitis B infection (13.04% vs 86.96%) was significantly lower than in COVID-19 patients without hypertension. Computed tomography (CT) chest scans show that COVID-19 patients with hypertension have higher rates of pleural effusion than those without hypertension (56.60% vs 43.40%). In addition, the levels of bloo