Recovery of severe COVID-19 complicated with cerebral infarction: Considerations on a case report.

RATIONALE: The standardization, individualization, and rationalization of intensive care and treatment for severe patients have improved. However, the combination of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and cerebral infarction presents new challenges beyond routine nursing care. PATIENT CONCERNS AND DIAGNOSES: This paper examines the rehabilitation nursing of patients with both COVID-19 and cerebral infarction as an example. It is necessary to develop a nursing plan for COVID-19 patients and implement early rehabilitation nursing for cerebral infarction patients. INTERVENTIONS: Timely rehabilitation nursing intervention is essential to enhance treatment outcomes and promote patient rehabilitation. After 20 days of rehabilitation nursing treatment, patients showed significant improvement in visual analogue scale score, drinking test, and upper and lower limb muscle strength. OUTCOMES: Treatment outcomes for complications, motor function, and daily activities also improved significantly. LESSONS: Critical care and rehabilitation specialist care play a positive role in ensuring patient safety and improving their quality of life by adapting measures to local conditions and the timing of care.

[A rare case of multifocal leukoencephalopathy and cerebral stroke after SARS-CoV-2 infection]. / Mul'tifokal'naya leikoentsefalopatiya i ostryi insul't posle infitsirovaniya virusom SARS-CoV-2.

A case of the development of multifocal leukoencephalopathy and hemorrhage after infection with SARS-CoV-2 in a female patient with Alzheimer's disease, aged 67 years, is described. The patient was hospitalized by an ambulance. Computed tomography (CT) of the brain showed the signs of cerebral infarction in the basin of the left middle cerebral artery with hemorrhagic transformation, multiple low-density foci that do not accumulate contrast in the white matter of the brain, the presence of sickle-shaped lesions in the cerebellum. CT of the chest revealed bilateral diffuse COVID-associated pneumonitis, alveolitis. The percentage of lesion was 75%. A smear express test for a new coronavirus infection was positive. Treatment was started, and a sudden death occurred. A sectional study in the brain revealed signs of ischemic cerebral infarction and multifocal leukoencephalomalacia - foci of demyelination (from 1 mm to 1 cm) had a multifocal lesion located in different parts of the white matter. Fibrinoid necrosis of vessel walls, destructive-productive vasculitis, ischemic small-focal perivascular necrosis, ischemic lesions of neurons and glial cells, neuronal and glial spongiosis were noted. In conclusion, the cause of death of the patient was a new coronavirus infection COVID-19, which caused diffuse viral COVID-associated pneumonitis, alveolitis with the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome in adults, respiratory failure and COVID-associated ischemic infarction, multifocal leukoencephalopathy (or malacia), cerebral edema complicated by neuromorphological changes in the brain.

An Autopsy Report of a Case with Cerebral Infarction Complicated by Coronavirus Disease 2019 Infection.

We herein report a case of cerebral infarct in a patient with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection who died of aspiration pneumonia. The postmortem examination of the brain revealed embolic infarct with negative findings on quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) as well as immunohistochemistry to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The systemic examination only revealed low copy numbers of SARS-CoV-2 in the bronchus. This is the first and so far only autopsy case of COVID-19 infection with pathologic and virologic findings of the postmortem brain in Japan.

Bilateral loss of taste from a unilateral thalamic infarct.

Loss of sense of taste (hypogeusia) involving a part of the tongue can follow acute stroke. We describe a woman with a small right thalamic acute infarct causing bilateral (mainly left-sided) hypogeusia. Her problem remains sufficiently severe to cause distress and nutritional deficit. The anatomical distribution of her problem-cheiro-oral syndrome with concurrent hypogeusia-suggested involvement of adjacent relevant thalamic fibres. We address key considerations in examining taste in research and in practice and discuss issues to address in people with hypogeusia, including swallow deficits, psychological elements of the poststroke condition and nutrition. Dietetic management should include optimising taste stimuli and nutritional support. Introducing more detailed taste assessments into standard practice would likely improve stroke unit care.

Artery of Percheron infarction associated with COVID-19 in the young adult.

The artery of Percheron is a small vessel whose occlusion causes bilateral paramedian thalamic and rostral midbrain stroke. COVID-19 is an independent risk factor for acute small vessel ischemic stroke. We presented the case of a young adult patient with infarction in the artery of Percheron territory as a presenting feature of COVID-19. Artery of Percheron infarction is a neurodiagnostic challenge in emergency during COVID-19 pandemic.

Malignant cerebral infarction associated with COVID-19 in a child.

Neurological manifestations, such as encephalitis, meningitis, ischemic, and hemorrhagic strokes, are reported with increasing frequency in patients affected by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In children, acute ischemic stroke is usually multifactorial: viral infection is an important precipitating factor for stroke. We present a case of a child with serological evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection whose onset was a massive right cerebral artery ischemia that led to a malignant cerebral infarction. The patient underwent a life-saving decompressive hemicraniectomy, with good functional recovery, except for residual hemiplegia. During rehabilitation, the patient also developed a lower extremity peripheral nerve neuropathy, likely related to a long-Covid syndrome.

COVID-19 Severity and Stroke: Correlation of Imaging and Laboratory Markers.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appears to be an independent risk factor for stroke. We hypothesize that patients who develop stroke while hospitalized for severe COVID-19 will have higher inflammatory markers and distinct stroke imaging patterns compared with patients positive for COVID-19 with out-of-hospital stroke onset and milder or no COVID-19 symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective case series of patients positive for COVID-19 on polymerase chain reaction testing with imaging-confirmed stroke treated within a large health care network in New York City and Long Island between March 14 and April 26, 2020. Clinical and laboratory data collected retrospectively included complete blood counts and creatinine, alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, C-reactive protein, ferritin, and D-dimer levels. All CT and MR imaging studies were independently reviewed by 2 neuroradiologists who recorded stroke subtype and patterns of infarction and intracranial hemorrhage. RESULTS: Compared with patients with COVID-19 with outside-of-hospital stroke onset and milder or no COVID-19 symptoms (n = 45, 52.3%), patients with stroke already hospitalized for severe COVID-19 (n = 41, 47.7%) had significantly more frequent infarctions (95.1% versus 73.3%, P = .006), with multivascular distributions (56.4% versus 33.3%, P = .022) and associated hemorrhage (31.7% versus 4.4%, P = .001). Patients with stroke admitted with more severe COVID-19 had significantly higher C-reactive protein and ferritin levels, elevated D-dimer levels, and more frequent lymphopenia and renal and hepatic injury (all, P < .003). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with stroke hospitalized with severe COVID-19 are characterized by higher inflammatory, coagulopathy, and tissue-damage biomarkers, supporting proposed pathogenic mechanisms of hyperinflammation activating a prothrombotic state. Cautious balancing of thrombosis and the risk of hemorrhagic transformation is warranted when considering anticoagulation.

Infarction of the Splenium of the Corpus Callosum in the Age of COVID-19: A Snapshot in Time.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ischemic infarction of the corpus callosum is rare and infarction isolated to the corpus callosum alone rarer still, accounting for much <1% of ischemic stroke in most stroke registries. About half of callosal infarctions affect the splenium. METHODS: During a 2-week period, at the height of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in New York City, 4 patients at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx were found to have ischemic lesions of the splenium of the corpus callosum, 2 with infarction isolated to the corpus callosum. RESULTS: All patients tested positive for COVID-19 and 3 had prolonged periods of intubation. All had cardiovascular risk factors. Clinically, all presented with encephalopathy and had evidence of coagulopathy and raised inflammatory markers. CONCLUSIONS: Infarction of the splenium of the corpus callosum is exceedingly rare and a cluster of such cases suggests COVID-19 as an inciting agent, with the mechanisms to be elucidated.