Neurological symptoms and complications of COVID-19 affect outcomes

New findings from a large German registry study shed more light on the neurological implications of COVID-19 and the factors affecting outcomes. Patients with pre-existing neuro-immunological diseases and prior cerebrovascular events did not seem to have an elevated risk of unfavourable outcomes or complicated disease course.

Dr Nina Kleineberg (University Hospital Cologne, Germany) presented findings from the Lean European Open Survey on SARS-CoV-2-Infected Patients (LEOSS), based on data from 6,537 patients from 127 centres across Europe with a diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection between January 2020 and February 2021 [1].

In total, 92.1% of patients in this cohort were hospitalised. More than half (54.4%) had ≥1 neurological symptom, 3.3% had a new neurological complication, and 18.1% had ≥1 pre-existing neurological comorbidities. The neurological manifestations (see Table 1) and complications (see Table 2) in this study were mostly in agreement with previously published data. Overall, 33.5% of patients had a complicated, and 19.4% a critical disease course. Total death rate was 14.7%. This was higher in patients with dementia (38.0%), movement disorders (32.8%), and prior cerebrovascular disease (32.3%). Age (OR 1.53), cardiovascular diseases (OR 1.74), muscle weakness (OR 1.40), pulmonary diseases (1.49), and male sex (OR 1.52) were associated with a significantly increased risk of a critical COVID-19 disease course, failed recovery, and death. Patients with pre-existing neuro-immunological diseases and prior cerebrovascular events did not seem to have an elevated risk of unfavourable outcome or complicated disease course. Most unspecific neurological symptoms at baseline were not associated with unfavourable short-term outcome. Headache may predict a favourable outcome. Excessive fatigue at baseline was associated with a higher risk of less favourable short-term outcome.

Table 1: Neurological symptoms of patients in LEOSS [1]



Table 2: Neurological complications of patients in LEOSS [1]

1. Kleineberg N, et al. Neurological implications of COVID-19 – results of the LEOSS registry. OPR-056, EAN 2021 Virtual Congress, 19–22 June.

 

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Posted on 18 August 202118 August 2021