One in 10 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 will likely develop neurological complications such as stroke and haemorrhage, according to a new study.
The study was led by Scott H. Faro, M.D., FASFNR, professor of radiology and neurology and director of the Division of Neuroradiology/Head & Neck Imaging at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Dr Faro initiated the study after discovering that research into the central nervous system (CNS) complications of hospitalised COVID-19 patients was limited to a small number of patients.
The research is the largest multi-institutional study to date on COVID-19 central nervous system complications.
Dr Faro said:
“Much has been written about the overall pulmonary problems related to COVID-19, but we do not often talk about the other organs that can be affected.
“Our study shows that central nervous system complications represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in this devastating pandemic.”
The researchers analysed 40,000 cases of COVID-19 patients in US and western European university hospitals.
The patients with an average age of 66-years-old had been admitted between September 2019 and June 2020.
A total of 442 acute neuroimaging findings were most likely associated with Covid infection.
Dr. Faro said: “Of all the inpatients who had imaging such as MRI or a CT scan of brain, the exam was positive approximately 10 per cent of the time.
“The incidence of 1.2 per cent means that a little more than one in 100 patients admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 are going to have a brain problem of some sort.”
The most common complication was ischemic stroke (6.2 per cent), followed by intracranial haemorrhage (3.72 per cent). Encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) was recorded in 0.47 per cent of the cases.
The researchers also recorded acute disseminating encephalomyelitis in a small number of cases. The syndrome mimics many of the symptoms of a stroke.
Dr Faro said: “It is important to know an accurate incidence of all the major central nervous system complications.
“There should probably be a low threshold to order brain imaging for patients with COVID-19.”
