TY - JOUR
T1 - Neurological involvement of coronavirus disease 2019
T2 - a systematic review
AU - Ghannam, Malik
AU - Alshaer, Qasem
AU - Al-Chalabi, Mustafa
AU - Zakarna, Lara
AU - Robertson, Jetter
AU - Manousakis, Georgios
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2020/11/1
Y1 - 2020/11/1
N2 - Background: In December 2019, unexplained cases of pneumonia emerged in Wuhan, China, which were found to be secondary to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-2019) outbreak, a pandemic. Objective: To clarify the neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection including the potential mechanisms and therapeutic options. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search from December 01, 2019 to May 14, 2020 using multiple combinations of keywords from PubMed and Ovid Medline databases according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We included articles with cases of COVID-19 where neurological involvement was evident. Results: We were able to identify 82 cases of COVID-19 with neurological complications. The mean age was 62.3 years. 37.8% of the patients were women (n = 31). 48.8% of the patients (n = 40) had cerebrovascular insults, 28% (n = 23) had neuromuscular disorders, and 23% of the patients (n = 19) had encephalitis or encephalopathy. Conclusions: Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 are not rare, especially large vessel stroke, Guillain–Barre syndrome, and meningoencephalitis. Moving forward, further studies are needed to clarify the prevalence of the neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection, investigate their biological backgrounds, and test treatment options. Physicians should be cautious not to overlook other neurological diagnoses that can mimic COVID-19 during the pandemic.
AB - Background: In December 2019, unexplained cases of pneumonia emerged in Wuhan, China, which were found to be secondary to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-2019) outbreak, a pandemic. Objective: To clarify the neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection including the potential mechanisms and therapeutic options. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search from December 01, 2019 to May 14, 2020 using multiple combinations of keywords from PubMed and Ovid Medline databases according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We included articles with cases of COVID-19 where neurological involvement was evident. Results: We were able to identify 82 cases of COVID-19 with neurological complications. The mean age was 62.3 years. 37.8% of the patients were women (n = 31). 48.8% of the patients (n = 40) had cerebrovascular insults, 28% (n = 23) had neuromuscular disorders, and 23% of the patients (n = 19) had encephalitis or encephalopathy. Conclusions: Neurological manifestations of COVID-19 are not rare, especially large vessel stroke, Guillain–Barre syndrome, and meningoencephalitis. Moving forward, further studies are needed to clarify the prevalence of the neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection, investigate their biological backgrounds, and test treatment options. Physicians should be cautious not to overlook other neurological diagnoses that can mimic COVID-19 during the pandemic.
KW - Neurological complications
KW - Pandemic
KW - SARS-CoV-2
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85086724169&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00415-020-09990-2
DO - 10.1007/s00415-020-09990-2
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32561990
AN - SCOPUS:85086724169
SN - 0340-5354
VL - 267
SP - 3135
EP - 3153
JO - Journal of Neurology
JF - Journal of Neurology
IS - 11
ER -