Background: COVID-19 infection can cause a variety of symptoms, including neurologic symptoms like anosmia, ageusia, or dysgeusia, as well as neurologic complaints like stroke, Guillain-Barre syndrome, encephalopathy, and a variety of others.
Objective: To detect the neurological complications of definite covid-19 infection patients, the relation with the onset and evolution of the infection, and compare these data with probable covid-19 infection patient.
Patients and methods: This were a multi-center observational retrospective – prospective study. Data were obtained from the archived files of the selected Covid-19 patients, in addition to patients admitted at Isolated ICU and inpatient rooms at Al-AzharSpecializedHospital, PoliceHospitals and ArabContactorMedicalCenter. The duration of the recruiting period was from February 2021 till August 2021.
Results: Neurological complication was found in 97(33.2%) patients out of 292 covid-19 patients included in our study. Headache was the most prevalent neurological outcome. That present in 44 patients (16.9%). The presence of neurological complications was significantly associated with female gender (25.8 vs 15.9%), presence of comorbidities (40.2 vs 9.2%), hypertension (53.6 vs 20.5%), diabetes mellitus (DM) (44.3 vs 11.3%), HCV (7.2 vs 0.5%), and history of cerebrovascular stroke (CVS) (7 vs 0%). D-dimer, ferritin, C-reactive protein (CRP), platelets, international randomization ratio (INR) were noticeably higher among patients presented with neurological complications comparing to those who have not had any neurological issues. In prediction of stroke, two significant predictors including hypertension and CRP were found. Neurological involvement in Covid-19 patients carried a bad prognostic indication. It was associated with more frequent need for mechanical ventilation and higher risk of mortality. The neurological defects between the suspected and confirmed Covid-19 patients did not show significant differences except in cranial nerves affection that was higher among confirmed cases.
Conclusion: Patients with Covid-19 frequently have neurological symptoms. There was a significant association between the presence of neurological manifestations and mortality.