METHODS
Two authors independently performed a systematic literature search in
PubMed, and Google Scholar and two preprint servers (medRxiv and SSRN)
up to 2nd May 2020. Search terms are depicted inTable S1 . The titles and abstracts of the resulting articles
were examined to exclude irrelevant studies. The full texts of the
remaining articles were read to determine if these articles meet our
eligibility criteria. Bibliographies of retrieved articles were also
reviewed for additional studies. The studies eligible for this review
reported on exposure to ACEIs/ARBs and the risk of mortality from
COVID-19 as well as the severity of COVID-19. We also aim to review the
definitions of severe/ critical disease used in the included studies.
Any discrepancies were addressed by a joint re-evaluation of the
original article. Articles were excluded if they did not report
mortality risk and severity as two independent outcomes, or without
original data. Two authors independently reviewed the primary studies to
assess the appropriateness for inclusion and data were extracted.
However, studies in the Chinese language were only assessed by CSK
(native Chinese). The information extracted from each study is presented
in Table 1 .