INCIDENCE OF ACUTE SYMPTOMATIC SEIZURES IN PATIENTS WITH COVID-19: A SINGLE-CENTER STUDY.

The most common neurological symptoms in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are headache, myalgia, encephalopathy, dizziness, dysgeusia and anosmia, making more than 90 percent of neurological manifestations of COVID-19. Other neurological manifestations such as stroke, movement disorder symptoms or epileptic seizures are rare but rather devastating, with possible lethal outcome. The primary aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of acute symptomatic seizures among COVID-19 patients, while secondary aim was to determine their possible etiology. Out of 5382 patients with COVID-19 admitted to Dubrava University Hospital from November 1, 2020 until June 1, 2021, 38 (seizure rate 0.7%) of them had acute symptomatic seizures. Of these 38 patients, 29 (76.3%) had new-onset epileptic seizures and nine (23.7%) patients with previous epilepsy history had breakthrough seizures during COVID-19. Although acute symptomatic seizures are an infrequent complication of COVID-19, seizure risk must be considered in these patients, particularly in the group of patients with a severe course of the disease. Accumulation of proinflammatory cytokines may contribute to the occurrence of seizures in patients with COVID-19, but seizures may also be secondary to primary brain pathology related to COVID-19, such as stroke or encephalitis.

Intracranial Mature Teratoma in an Adult Patient: A Case Report.

Introduction : Primary intracranial teratoma is a subtype of germ cell tumors, classified into three subtypes. They occur very rarely, with only several reported individual cases in adults. Case Description We present a patient with an intermittent headache in the right frontal region. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a right sided high frontal parasagittal mass that compressed the falx, the right lateral ventricle, as well as the brain parenchyma. Patient underwent surgical treatment. Histopathological analysis described mature teratoma. Four months after the surgical treatment there were no signs of residual intracranial mass or relapse. Discussion Primary intracranial teratoma in adults has a nonspecific clinical presentation. MRI reveals a solitary irregular mass with multilocularity and mixed signals derived from different tissues. The patients age, biochemical markers, and patohistological analysis are necessary to confirm the diagnosis. Conclusion Teratoma treatment strategy still remains controversial. It includes radical resection whenever possible. Since the residual portion of mature teratoma may contain part of immature or malignant tissue, tumor recurrence after surgical removal is possible. Also, new tumor mass could occur at other sites intracranial after the initial one was removed. Thus, although patients usually recover, they should be followed-up for a long period of time.