13% of COVID-19 Hospitalized Patients Had Serious Neurologic Symptoms

Nearly 13% of COVID-19 patients admitted in the first year of the pandemic developed severe neurologic manifestations, as per a study by researchers from BUSM.

Nearly 13% of COVID-19 patients admitted in the first year of the pandemic developed severe neurologic manifestations.

To describe the prevalence, associated risk factors and outcomes of serious neurologic manifestations among patients hospitalized with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) studied 16,225 patients from 179 hospitals in 24 countries as part of the Society for Critical Care Medicine’s Viral Infection and Respiratory Illness University Study.

Mental Health during COVID-19: Top Tips to Manage COVID Anxiety, Depression
Coping with mental health during COVID-19 is the need of the hour. The article highlights top tips to manage mental health and well-being during the pandemic.

‘Neurologic symptoms are frequently reported even in patients with mild illness and for some, these neurologic symptoms may persist as part of long-haul COVID. ’

Specifically, 1,656 (10.2 percent) had encephalopathy (any diffuse disease of the brain that alters brain function or structure) at admission, 331 (2.0 percent) had a stroke, 243 (1.5 percent) had a seizure, and 73 (0.5 percent) had meningitis or encephalitis at admission or during hospitalization.

Neurological Associations of COVID-19

“Our findings show that encephalopathy at hospital admission is present in at least one in 10 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, while stroke, seizures and meningitis/encephalitis were much less common at admission or during hospitalization,” explains corresponding author Anna Cervantes-Arslanian, MD, associate professor of neurology, neurosurgery and medicine at BUSM.

Additionally, they discovered all serious neurologic manifestations were associated with increased disease severity, greater need for ICU interventions, longer length of stay, ventilator use and higher mortality.

According to the researchers, patients with neurologic manifestations were more likely to have medical comorbidities. Most notably, a history of stroke or neurologic disorder increased the odds of developing a neurologic manifestation.

Hepatic Encephalopathy - Causes, Types, Stages, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Diet & Prognosis
Hepatic encephalopathy is a complication of cirrhosis and liver failure marked by confusion, altered sensorium, ultimately leading to coma or even death.

Moreover, they found neurologic manifestations differed by race. Black patients had an increased frequency of stroke, seizure and encephalopathy when compared with white patients. “Given the association of neurologic manifestations with poorer outcomes, further study is desperately needed to understand why these differences occur and what can be done to intervene,” added Cervantes, who also is a neurologist at Boston Medical Center.

These findings appear online in the journal Critical Care Explorations.

Stroke Risk Calculator
Stroke Risk Calculator checks if you have hypertension, diabetes and heart failure and predicts the risk of stroke (cerebrovascular accident) in next 10 years.

Funding for this study was provided by NIH/NCRR/NCATS CTSA grant number UL1 TR002377. The registry is funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Janssen Research & Development, LLC. Research Electronic Data Capture support was provided by the Mayo Clinic. Parts of these results were presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting (on April 5, 2022), as an oral abstract.

Source-Eurekalert

Quiz on Fits
Fits or Seizures could happen due to a number of reasons. Not all fits qualify to being labeled as epilepsy. Fits manifest in various forms. Test your knowledge on fits by taking this quiz.