Imaging findings of the relationship between COVID-19 and CVD: Case series

ABSTRACT

Virus infections belonging to the Coronaviridae family are causal agents of respiratory, hepatic, intestinal, and occasionally neurological pathologies. They can cause ischemic stroke and cerebral hemorrhage by various mechanisms. This article is observational, retrospective, cross-sectional, descriptive. Series of cases of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke treated at the "1 de Octubre" Regional Hospital from May 2020 to August 2020 associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection with the use of CT imaging diagnostic aids based on the CO-RADS classification, RT-PCR, clinical and imaging correlation of the stroke, considering its location and time of evolution. A total of 9 patients with CVD and COVID-19 were found 4 patients with a history of SAH and 4 patients without comorbidities who debuted with CVD during COVID-19 infection, 1 with heart valve disease, the neurological symptoms collected were headache, disorientation, dysarthria, motor aphasia, seizures, facial paralysis, hemiparesis, and hemiplegia. 7 patients with ischemic presentation, one of them had a hemorrhagic transformation and 2 only had hemorrhagic events. The hypercoagulable state associated with the hyperinflammatory response triggered by COVID-19 could be considered a possible cause of stroke. COVID-19 is a pathology related to cerebral vascular disease, causing ischemic pathology, but it can also have hemorrhagic characteristics.