Covid-19 infection increases the risk of death in younger, healthier stroke patients, according to a new study.
The findings from the large, international multicentre collaboration are published in the journal Neurosurgery.
The work confirms findings from previous research by the lead research team at Thomas Jefferson University, which found that Covid-19 patients with stroke tended to be younger and healthier than most stroke patients, and also more difficult to treat.
Corresponding author, Pascal Jabbour, MD, Distinguished Professor of Neurological Surgery Division Chief of Neurovascular Surgery & Endovascular Neurosurgery—Jefferson Health, said:
“At the start of the pandemic many neurosurgeons had observed an alarming trend in our severe stroke patients.
“The stroke patients who tested positive for COVID-19 were often younger, had multiple large vessels blocked, and often had worse outcomes than our usual patients. This international study confirms those early, alarming observations.”
Researchers pooled data collected between February 25th and December 30, 2020, from a total of 575 patients with Large Vessel Occlusions (LVOs) – one of the most severe kinds of stroke that often leads to major disability.
A total of 194 of those patients had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The researchers found that Covid-19 patient with LVO were nearly 10 years younger, with a mean age of 62.5 compared to 71.2 years old among those without the disease.
The Covid-19 group also included twice as many patients under the age of 50.
The coronavirus patients were also generally healthier and 75.5 per cent had only moderate Covid-19.
“Our analysis showed that patients with COVID-19 had far fewer of the usual cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, heart disease, high blood pressure that we see in the usual stroke patients,” says Dr. Dmytriw.
“And for many patients – as many as 34 per cent based on our earlier research – stroke was their first symptom of COVID-19. They didn’t know they had the infection until they were in the hospital for stroke.”
Overall, Covid-19 patients with LVO had a 40 per cent likelihood of death, which is higher than generally reported in this type of stroke.
Dr. Jabbour said:
“COVID-19 vaccines are reducing the severity of disease in vaccinated patients.
“It remains to be seen whether that reduction translates to fewer and less severe stroke symptoms in these patients. The data for this study was collected during the height of the pandemic before vaccines were available. It’s an area we would like to explore in future research.”
