American Heart Association President, Mitchell S. V. Elkind, M.D., MS, FAHA, FAAN, professor of neurology and epidemiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and attending neurologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY.
Offering perspective on AHA Scientific Sessions 2020 Presentations P2355 and 399 
copyright American Heart Association 2020

"Another question that is addressed by these papers is the association between certain blood pressure medications and the risk of infection with COVID-19 and outcomes in patients who have COVID-19. So we know that this virus SARS coronavirus two gains entry to cells by binding to an enzyme on cell surfaces called ACE2, the angiotensin converting enzyme two. And if there's evidence that this enzyme is increased in people who have high blood pressure and also potentially in people who are taking medications like ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers also called ARBs. And so there's been this concern that people who have high blood pressure or are taking these medications may be at increased risk of infection or having worse outcomes should they become infected. And what this analysis is is a meta analysis of many different trials of people who were taking ACE inhibitors or ARBs and were exposed to the virus or had COVID-19. And what this meta analysis shows is really a confirmation in a much larger sample size of what had been shown in other studies previously, which is somewhat reassuring, which is that people who are taking ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers are not at any increased risk of getting infected with COVID-19. And furthermore, that people who are taking those medications don't have any worse outcomes if they get infected with COVID-19. In fact, the evidence suggests that for people who are taking these medications, if they develop COVID-19, they should continue taking those medications and not stop them. It's very important if people have controlled blood pressure to continue keeping it under control. So we shouldn't be stopping these medications at the time somebody is diagnosed with COVID-19. And actually back in March, right at the beginning of the pandemic, the American Heart Association together with the Heart Failure Society of America and the American College of Cardiology advised that people not stop these medications when they're infected with COVID-19 because the evidence to do so just wasn't there and these data now six, seven months later confirm that impression at that time. And so again, we would advise that people not stop their ancient debris or ARBs medications for hypertension when they become infected with COVID."