Characteristics and Comparison of 32 COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Ischemic Strokes and Historical Stroke Patients.
J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis
; 30(1): 105435, 2021 Jan.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1023681
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
The presence of COVID-19 infection may increase the risk of thrombotic events including ischemic strokes. Whilst a number of recent reports suggest that COVID-19 associated stroke tends to be severe, there is limited data on the effects of COVID-19 in prospective registries. MATERIAL ANDMETHODS:
To determine how COVID-19 infection may affect cerebrovascular disease, we evaluated the ischemic stroke sub-types, clinical course and outcomes prior to and during the pandemic in Qatar. The Hamad General Hospital (HGH) stroke database was interrogated for stroke admissions during the last 4 months of 2019 and January-May 2020.RESULTS:
In Qatar the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased from only 2 in February to 779 in March, 12,628 in April and 45,501 in May. Stroke admissions to HGH declined marginally from an average of 97/month for six pre-COVID months to 72/month in March-May. There were 32 strokes that were positive for COVID-19. When compared to non-COVID-19 stroke during the three months of the pandemic, COVID-19 patients were younger with significantly lower rates of hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia. COVID-19 positive patients had more cortical strokes (34.4% vs 5.6%; p = 0.001), severe disease (NIHSS >10 34.4% vs 16.7%; p = 0.001) prolonged hospitalization and fewer with good recovery (mRS 0-2 28.1% vs 51.9%; p = 0.001).CONCLUSIONS:
When compared to six pre-COVID-19 months, the number of ischemic stroke admissions during the three months of the pandemic declined marginally. COVID-19 positive patients were more likely to have a large cortical stroke with severe symptoms and poor outcome.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Brain Ischemia
/
Stroke
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis
Journal subject:
Vascular Diseases
/
Brain
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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