Ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage in patients with COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction. Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can exhibit neurological symptoms and diseases. A few studies have focused on cerebrovascular diseases in patients with COVID-19. In the present study, we assessed medical records of patients with COVID-19 with stroke. Material and methods. Forty-seven COVID-19 patients with stroke were consecutively selected and reviewed. Medical records of the patients including information on age, gender, severity of pulmonary involvement (intubation or non-intubation) in COVID, presence of ICH and ischemic stroke, localization of ICH, history of diabetes and hypertension were collected. Results. Twenty-three COVID-19 patients (49%) had ICH and 24 COVID-19 patients (51%) had ischemic stroke. Sixteen COVID-19 patients with ICH (69.6%) had lobar hemorrhage and 7 COVID-19 patients with ICH (30.4%) had non-lobar hemorrhage (p =0.093). Conclusions. In this study, ICH and ischemic stroke were present at roughly the same rate in COVID-19 patients with stroke. Lobar hemorrhage was seen more frequently in COVID-19 patients with ICH. Brain and cerebrovascular imaging can be a helpful component of the work-up in COVID-19 patients.

Keywords

• covid-19
• sars-cov-2
• intracerebral hemorrhage
• ischemic stroke