Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a worldwide pandemic responsible for millions of deaths around the world.
Hypertension has been identified as one of the most common comorbidities and risk factors for severity and adverse outcome in these patients. Recent investigations have raised the question whether
hypertension represents a predictor of outcome in
COVID-19 patients independently of other common comorbidities such as diabetes,
obesity, other
cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney, liver, and
pulmonary diseases. However, the impact of chronic and newly diagnosed
hypertension in
COVID-19 patients has been insufficiently investigated. The same is true for the relationship between blood pressure levels and outcomes in
COVID-19 patients. It seems that the long discussion about the impact of
angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) and blockers of
angiotensin I receptors (ARB) on severity and outcome in
COVID-19 is approaching an end because the large number of original studies and meta-analyses discarded the initial findings about higher prevalence of ACEI/ARB use in patients with unfavorable outcomes. Nevertheless, there are many controversies in the relationship between
hypertension and
COVID-19. The aim of this review article is to provide a clinical overview of the currently available evidence regarding the predictive value of
hypertension, the effect of blood pressure levels, the impact of previously known and newly diagnosed
hypertension, and the effect of
antihypertensive therapy on the severity and outcomes in
COVID-19 patients.