Management of a Parkinson’s disease patient with severe COVID-19 pneumonia

Abstract

Elderly populations with underlying chronic diseases are more vulnerable to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and have higher mortality. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that occurs more often in elderly people. Currently, little is known about whether patients with PD are more susceptible to novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and whether the treatment of PD would affect the management of COVID-19 or vice versa. Here, we report a case of a PD patient with severe COVID-19 pneumonia in Wuhan, China. After diagnosis of COVID-19, this PD patient had worsening of motor symptoms, complicated with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, urinary tract infection, and acute encephalopathy. In addition to treatment for COVID-19 and urinary tract infection, we adjusted anti-PD medicine by stepwise increasing of dose, resulting in better control of her mobility symptoms and non-motor symptoms.