ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Cerebral microhaemorrhages are increasingly being recognised as a complication of COVID-19. This observational retrospective study aims to further investigate the potential pathophysiology through assessing the pattern of microhaemorrhage and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 and microhaemorrhage. By comparing with similar patterns of microhaemorrhage in other non-COVID-19 disease, this study aims to propose possible common pathogenic mechanisms. METHODS: A retrospective observational case series was performed identifying all patients with COVID-19 complicated by cerebral microhaemorrhage on MRI. The distribution and number of microhaemorrhages were recorded using the microbleed anatomical scale, and patients' baseline characteristics and salient test results were also recorded. RESULTS: Cerebral microhaemorrhages were noted to have a predilection for the corpus callosum, the juxtacortical white matter and brainstem. All patients had a preceding period of critical illness with respiratory failure and severe hypoxia necessitating intubation and mechanical ventilation. DISCUSSION: This study demonstrates a pattern of cerebral microhaemorrhage that is similar to the pattern reported in patients with non-COVID-19 related critical illness and other causes of severe hypoxia. This raises questions regarding whether microhaemorrhage occurs from endothelial dysfunction due the direct effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection or from the secondary effects of critical illness and hypoxia.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/complications , Cerebral Hemorrhage/etiology , Aged , Brain Stem/diagnostic imaging , COVID-19/diagnostic imaging , Cerebral Hemorrhage/diagnostic imaging , Corpus Callosum/diagnostic imaging , Critical Illness , Female , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Middle Aged , Respiration, Artificial , Respiratory Insufficiency/etiology , Retrospective Studies , Treatment Outcome , White Matter/diagnostic imagingABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To describe a novel case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) in a patient with aplastic anemia where there was early brain stem-predominant involvement. METHODS: Evaluation of cause, clinical symptoms, and treatment response. RESULTS: A 59-year-old woman with a background of transfusion-dependent aplastic anemia presented with seizures and reduced level of consciousness 10 days after the onset of subjective fever, cough, and headache. Nasopharyngeal swab testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was positive, and CT during admission demonstrated diffuse swelling of the brain stem. She required intubation and mechanical ventilation for airway protection, given her reduced level of consciousness. The patient's condition deteriorated, and MRI on day 6 demonstrated worsening brain stem swelling with symmetrical hemorrhagic lesions in the brain stem, amygdalae, putamina, and thalamic nuclei. Appearances were consistent with hemorrhagic ANE with early brain stem involvement. The patient showed no response to steroid therapy and died on the eighth day of admission. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 may be associated with an acute severe encephalopathy and, in this case, was considered most likely to represent an immune-mediated phenomenon. As the pandemic continues, we anticipate that the spectrum of neurologic presentation will broaden. It will be important to delineate the full clinical range of emergent COVID-19-related neurologic disease.