By Robert Preidt
HealthDay reporter
MONDAY, December 28, 2020 (HealthDay News) – Hospitalized COVID-19 patients with brain complications like stroke and confusion are at increased risk of death, new study shows.
The results could improve care and save lives during the pandemic, the researchers said.
“This study is the first to show that the presence of neurological symptoms, particularly stroke and confused or altered thinking, can indicate more serious disease progression, even when lung problems are not severe,” said study co-author Dr. David Altschul, chief physician in neurovascular surgery at the Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
His team analyzed data on 4,711 COVID-19 patients enrolled in the Montefiore system between March 1 and April 16. Of these, 581 (12%) had neurological problems that were serious enough for doctors to order brain imaging.
These patients were compared to a control group of more than 1,700 COVID-19 patients of similar age and severity who had no neurological symptoms.
Stroke was diagnosed in 55 patients with brain imaging and 258 were diagnosed with confusion or altered thinking ability.
Compared to the control group, patients were twice as likely to die with stroke (49% versus 24%) (49% versus 24%), and patients with confusion had a significantly higher risk of death, according to results published online on December 18 ( 40% versus 33%) in the journal Neurology.
More than half of stroke patients didn’t have high blood pressure or other underlying risk factors for stroke, the researchers found.
“This highly unusual finding agrees with other studies of people with COVID-19 that infection with the novel coronavirus itself is a risk factor for stroke,” Altschul said in a press release from Montefiore.
More information
The National Library of Medicine has more about COVID-19.
SOURCE: Montefiore Health System, press release, December 18, 2020
HealthDay WebMD News
Copyright © 2013-2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Comments are closed.