Neuromuscular Manifestations of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Objective: Determine neuromuscular manifestation incidence in COVID-19 patients from the longitudinal electronic health record database Optum. Background: Both central and peripheral nervous system (PNS) manifestations of COVID-19 have been reported. A Chinese retrospective case series, on 214 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, found that 8.9% presented with peripheral nerve disease and 7% had muscular injuries. Other studies looking at the prevalence of PNS manifestations are limited and have significantly lower numbers. Design/Methods: The COVID-19 data is sourced from more than 700 hospitals and 7000 clinics in the US. Patients with numerous neuromuscular diagnoses were identified based on ICD-10 coding. Examples include carpal tunnel syndrome, radial nerve lesion, sciatic nerve lesion, myasthenia gravis, acute transverse myelitis, Bell's palsy, and trigeminal neuralgia. Results: We reviewed a total of 598,847 patients with positive COVID-19 PCR and/or diagnosis coding. Neuromuscular complications must have been within 45 days of diagnosis to be included. Incidence of similar neuromuscular complaints was evaluated in 3,001,153 controls without COVID-19. Critical illness neuropathy was found in 35,782 COVID-positive patients and 6,281 of those without. Retrospective study limitations include temporal relationship to COVID-19 does not necessarily indicate causality and inability to confirm the coding by record review or EMG/NCS. Conclusions: Incidence of neuromuscular disorders is generally lower or equivalent in COVID19 patients than in the general population, except for critical illness neuropathy and myopathy. This finding may be explained by more COVID-19 patients being in the intensive care unit and bedbound for longer periods. It is worth noting that a small case series of COVID-related critical illness neuropathy and myopathy patients showed no histopathological or clinical differences compared to non-COVID patients. To our knowledge, this report includes an analysis of neuromuscular manifestations in one of the largest cohorts of COVID-19 patients. This can assist with risk-benefit discussions regarding treatment initiation, etiology of diagnoses, and counseling for COVID-19 questions.