Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 patients in India: A case controlstudy

ABSTRACT

Objective: The aim of the study was to study the neurological manifestation in the patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Background: The outbreak of novel corona virus has prominently respiratory system involvement with varied manifestation of other systems as well. We did a case-control study comparing symptomatic with asymptomatic patients. Design/Methods: Demographic and clinical data of 109 SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay confirmed adult patients was collected prospectively. The study was a single center in India. Patients who were unable to cooperate and/or required mechanical ventilation were excluded. Questionnaire based assessment pertaining to most prevalent symptoms and neurological symptoms were done. Results: We enrolled 109 patients between 1st April 2020 to 20th April 2020. The mean age of patients was 38.2 (13.4) years and majority were males (86.2%). More than half of the patients (58.7%) were symptomatic and 24.8% of the patients had at least one neurological symptom. Cough was the commonest symptom (46.8%) followed by fever (31.2%). Amongst the neurological symptoms, the commonest was headache (15.6%), and anosmia (9.2%). In addition, patients had increased thirst (9.2%), myalgia (8.3%), weakness (8.3%), decreased taste (8.3%), and decreased sleep (5.5%). Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 may have neurological manifestations in addition to respiratory tract symptoms. Commonest symptoms like headache, anosmia, and increased thirst may be enquired in doubtful cases with high index of suspicion.