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The coronavirus ‘damages the brain and nervous system of HALF of seriously ill patients and a third of all cases’, causing symptoms such as stumbling, difficulty speaking and seizures.
- Neurologists studied 214 coronavirus-treated patients in Wuhan, China.
- Of these people, 36.4 percent were found to have brain and nerve symptoms
- Identifying these symptoms could help doctors identify higher-risk patients.
Coronavirus damages the brain and nervous system of half of seriously ill patients, according to a study of COVID-19 patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Such impacts, which appear in a third of patients overall, lead to symptoms including headaches, stumbling, difficulty speaking, nerve pain, and seizures.
The study, the first to characterize brain problems associated with coronavirus infection, suggests that these symptoms may indicate patients are at higher risk.
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Coronavirus damages the brain and nervous system of HALF of seriously ill patients, according to a study of patients with COVID-19 in the Chinese city of Wuhan (stock image)
In the study, neurologist Bo Hu from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and colleagues analyzed 214 COVID-19 patients from Wuhan, China, the city where the outbreak emerged, between mid-January and mid-February.
All patients were treated at one of three dedicated special care centers at the university’s Union Hospital.
The experts classified neurological symptoms into one of three categories, the first of which were manifestations of the central nervous system, including dizziness, headache, impaired consciousness, acute cerebrovascular disease, ataxia, and seizures.
The other categories were manifestations of the peripheral nervous system (alteration of taste, alteration of smell, alteration of vision and nervous pain) and manifestations of skeletal muscle injury.
“Overall, 78 patients (36.4 percent) had neurological manifestations,” the researchers wrote in their article.
“Compared to patients with non-severe infection, patients with severe infection were older, had more underlying disorders, especially hypertension, and had fewer typical COVID-19 symptoms, such as fever and cough,” they added.
“Patients with more severe infection had neurological manifestations, such as acute cerebrovascular disease (5 vs. 1), altered consciousness (13 vs. 3), and skeletal muscle injury (17 vs. 6).”
The study, the first to characterize brain problems associated with coronavirus infection, suggests that neurological symptoms may indicate patients at increased risk. In the image, a computed tomography (CT) image of the brain of a patient with COVID-19
“During the epidemic period of COVID-19, when viewing patients with neurological manifestations, clinicians should suspect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection as a differential diagnosis,” the researchers said.
This, they added, will avoid delaying diagnosis or misdiagnosis and missing the opportunity to treat [the patients] and avoid further transmission. “
“Observations of neurological complications in a subset of COVID-19 patients are noteworthy, but should not distract attention from the main pathology of respiratory distress,” said virologist Ian Jones of the University of Reading.
“Almost half of the patients described here had underlying health problems and there is no direct data on the presence of viruses at neurological sites.”
‘Viremia, the presence of viruses in the bloodstream, from where it can access neuronal tissue, was described for SARS but not in all patients and only temporarily. It happens, but it’s generally not what coronaviruses do.
“At this time, neurological complications could be seen as a consequence of the severity of COVID-19 disease rather than a new distinct concern.”
The full study findings were published in the journal JAMA Neurology.
