Literature Review
In this nice review recently published in Lancet Neurology, the authors summarised the evidence for COVID-19 putative disease mechanisms, and suggested a framework for investigating patients with suspected COVID-19-associated neurological disease to support clinico-epidemiological, disease mechanistic, and treatment studies.
In particular, they found that encephalopathy has been reported for 93 patients in total, including 16 (7%) of 214 hospitalised patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, and 40 (69%) of 58 patients in intensive care with COVID-19 in France. Encephalitis has been described in eight patients to date, and Guillain-Barré syndrome in 19 patients. SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in the CSF of some patients. Anosmia and ageusia are common, and can occur in the absence of other clinical features. Acute cerebrovascular disease emerged also as an important complication, with cohort studies reporting stroke in 2–6% of patients hospitalised with COVID-19. So far, 96 patients with stroke have been described, who frequently had vascular events in the context of a pro-inflammatory hypercoagulable state with elevated C-reactive protein, D-dimer, and ferritin.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(20)30221-0/fulltext
