— Hospitalized patients show deficits including cognitive impairment 6 months later

Authors: by Judy George, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today January 7, 2021share to facebookshare to twittershare to linkedinemail article

Long-term neurologic manifestations were seen in more than a third of patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection, a prospective study in Italy showed.

In a group of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with no prior neurologic disease, 37.4% showed abnormalities on neurologic exam 6 months later — most commonly cognitive deficits, hyposmia, and postural tremor — according to Alessandro Padovani, MD, PhD, of the University of Brescia, and co-authors. The findings were reported in a medRxiv preprint and have not undergone peer review.

Patients also noted fatigue, memory impairment, and sleep disorders, Padovani said. “The severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection was an important predictor, together with age and premorbid condition, of long-term neurological symptoms and features in the cohort.”

The findings are important for long-term management of COVID-19 patients, he told MedPage Today. “They showed that the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection may impact on neurological sequelae, but also that the symptoms reported do not always reflect neurological features at examination.”

The study is one of the first to look specifically for new long-term neurologic manifestations in COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized. Earlier research showed that 87% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 reported persistence of at least one lingering symptom, notably fatigue and dyspnea, 60 days after discharge. Fatigue and dyspnea also were the most prevalent symptoms reported during infection and at 3-month follow-up in an analysis of both hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

For More Information: https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/90587