Neurological symptoms and complications in predominantly hospitalized COVID-19 patients - results of the European multinational LEOSS registry

  • Nina Kleineberg (Geteilte/r Erstautor/in)
  • Samuel Knauss (Geteilte/r Erstautor/in)
  • Eileen Gülke (Geteilte/r Erstautor/in)
  • Hans Pinnschmidt
  • Carolin Jakob
  • Paul Lingor
  • Kerstin Hellwig
  • Achim Berthele
  • Günter Höglinger
  • Geroen Fink
  • Matthias Endres
  • Christian Gerloff
  • Christine Klein
  • Melanie Stecher
  • Annika Classen
  • Siegbert Rieg
  • Stefan Borgmann
  • Frank Hanses
  • Maria Rüthrich
  • Martin Hower
  • Lukas Tometten
  • Martina Haselberger
  • Christiane Piepel
  • Ute Merle
  • Sebastion Dolff
  • Christian Degenhardt
  • Björn-Erik Jensen
  • Maria J G T Vehreschild
  • Johanna Erber (Geteilte/r Letztautor/in)
  • Christiana Franke (Geteilte/r Letztautor/in)
  • Clemens Warnke (Geteilte/r Letztautor/in)

Abstract

Background and purpose
During acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, neurological signs, symptoms and complications occur. We aimed to assess their clinical relevance by evaluating real-world data from a multinational registry.

Methods
We analyzed COVID-19 patients from 127 centers, diagnosed between January 2020 and February 2021, and registered in the European multinational LEOSS (Lean European Open Survey on SARS-Infected Patients) registry. The effects of prior neurological diseases and the effect of neurological symptoms on outcome were studied using multivariate logistic regression.

Results
A total of 6537 COVID-19 patients (97.7% PCR-confirmed) were analyzed, of whom 92.1% were hospitalized and 14.7% died. Commonly, excessive tiredness (28.0%), headache (18.5%), nausea/emesis (16.6%), muscular weakness (17.0%), impaired sense of smell (9.0%) and taste (12.8%), and delirium (6.7%) were reported. In patients with a complicated or critical disease course (53%) the most frequent neurological complications were ischemic stroke (1.0%) and intracerebral bleeding (ICB; 2.2%). ICB peaked in the critical disease phase (5%) and was associated with the administration of anticoagulation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Excessive tiredness (odds ratio [OR] 1.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20–1.68) and prior neurodegenerative diseases (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.07–1.63) were associated with an increased risk of an unfavorable outcome. Prior cerebrovascular and neuroimmunological diseases were not associated with an unfavorable short-term outcome of COVID-19.

Conclusion
Our data on mostly hospitalized COVID-19 patients show that excessive tiredness or prior neurodegenerative disease at first presentation increase the risk of an unfavorable short-term outcome. ICB in critical COVID-19 was associated with therapeutic interventions, such as anticoagulation and ECMO, and thus may be an indirect complication of a life-threatening systemic viral infection.

Bibliografische Daten

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ISSN1351-5101
DOIs
StatusVeröffentlicht - 12.2021