Brain and COVID: A Case Series of Neurovascular Complications

Introduction:COVID-19 is caused due to infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2. A change in the epidemiological pattern of neurovascular diseases has been observed among patients who have had COVID-19 infection. There are not enough studies which have evaluated the neurovascular manifestations among patients of COVID-19 infection.Materials and Methods:This single-center observational study was intended to evaluate the correlation between various COVID-19-related parameters with the outcomes of vascular events among patients of COVID-19 who developed neurovascular complications. The study was conducted at a tertiary hospital in Pune, India, from February 01, 2021, to October 10, 2021. The study population involved patients with COVID-19 of varying severity and associated neurovascular complications. The total number of patients was 22 in number. The deidentified data were analyzed using JMP version 10.040.Results:Among a total of 22 patients, 16 (73%) had arterial infarcts, 5 (23%) had venous infarcts, whereas 1 (4%) had intracerebral hemorrhage. Four (18%) patients had features of severe COVID-19 and 2 (9%) of them had a modified Rankin Scale of six. There was a strong correlation between the severity of COVID infection and the severity of neurovascular complications. A positive correlation was observed between the time duration from Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) positivity to neurovascular complications with the duration of >45 days having a poorer outcome.Conclusion:COVID-19 is more likely to cause thrombotic vascular events including stroke. The severity of COVID-19 is directly correlated with poorer outcomes. The duration between RT-PCR positivity and neurovascular symptoms if >45 days, has a poorer outcome.