COVID-19 Infection Significantly Associated with Strokes, Find Researchers

The first major peer reviewed study has shown that COVID-19 infection is a risk factor for acute strokes and patients with the infection should undergo more aggressive monitoring for stroke.

With the dramatic rise in patients with COVID-19 in New York City in March 2020, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital (New York, NY, USA) began to observe a disproportionately greater incidence of stroke among patients with COVID-19 as compared with the non-COVID-19 population. In order to confirm an association between COVID-19 infection and stroke risk, the researchers conducted a study with the aim of determining whether infection with COVID-19 was indeed associated with increased incidence of stroke, as well as assess whether COVID-19 was an independent risk factor for stroke when controlling for conventional vascular risk factors.

For their retrospective case-control study, the researchers looked at 123 patients presenting to the hospitals for suspicion of stroke. A comparison of the group of patients with stroke versus non-stroke revealed significantly elevated number of patients with COVID-19 infection among the stroke group after stratifying for other known common stroke risk factors. This was the first major peer reviewed study to establish a link between SARS-CoV-2 infection and increased stroke risk when accounting for confounding risk factors. The researchers have suggested that patients with COVID-19 should be evaluated early for acute neurological changes and timely workup should be performed in patients suspected to have stroke to reduce morbidity and mortality.

“This is the first major peer reviewed study to show that COVID-19 infection is a risk factor for acute strokes,” said Puneet Belani, MD, Assistant Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, Department of Radiology, Neuroradiology. “In a study of 123 patients presenting to our New York City Hospital System for suspicion of stroke during the COVID-19 pandemic from March to April 2020, we showed that COVID-19 infection is significantly associated with strokes. Patients with COVID-19 should be evaluated early for acute neurological changes and timely workup should be performed in patients suspected to have stroke to reduce morbidity and mortality.”

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Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital