Neurological Manifestations and their Correlated Factors in COVID-19 Patients; a Cross-Sectional Study.
ARCHIVES OF ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2021;
9:e34. [PMID:
34027429 PMCID:
PMC8126358 DOI:
10.22037/aaem.v9i1.1210]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Introduction:
COVID-19 might present with other seemingly unrelated manifestations; for instance, neurological symptoms. This study aimed to evaluate the neurologic manifestations and their correlated factors in COVID-19 patients.
Methods:
This retrospective observational study was conducted from March 17, 2020 to June 20, 2020 in a tertiary hospital in Iran. The study population consisted of adult patients with a positive result for COVID-19 real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using nasopharyngeal swabs. Both written and electronic data regarding baseline characteristic, laboratory findings, and neurological manifestations were evaluated and reported.
Results:
727 COVID-19 patients with the mean age of 49.94 ± 17.49 years were studied (56.9% male). At least one neurological symptom was observed in 403 (55.4%) cases. Headache (29.0%), and smell (22.3%) and taste (22.0%) impairment were the most prevalent neurological symptoms, while seizure (1.1%) and stroke (2.3%) were the least common ones. Patients with neurological manifestations were significantly older (p = 0.04), had greater body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.02), longer first symptom to admission duration (p < 0.001) and were more frequently opium users (p = 0.03) compared to COVID-19 patients without neurological symptoms. O2 saturation was significantly lower in patients with neurological manifestations (p = 0.04). In addition, medians of neutrophil count (p = 0.006), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (p = 0.02) and c-reactive protein (CRP) (p = 0.001) were significantly higher and the median of lymphocyte count (p = 0.03) was significantly lower in patients with neurological manifestations.
Conclusion:
The prevalence of neurological manifestations in the studied cases was high (55.4%). This prevalence was significantly higher in older age, grated BMI, longer lasting disease, and opium usage.
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