When Covid-19 patients have an acute ischemic stroke (AIS), it not only has a severe but also a fatal effect, according to new findings published in Stroke.
Some of these complications include acute respiratory distress syndrome, cardiac arrhythmias, acute cardiac injury, shock, pulmonary embolism, cytokine release syndrome and secondary infection, contributing further to the worse outcomes including higher mortality in these patients, said the researchers in the study.
They had analyzed data on patients with Covid-19 and AIS treated at 28 health care centers in 16 countries this year ie 2020 and compared their health with AIS patients without Covid-19 from the Acute Stroke Registry and Analysis of Lausanne (ASTRAL) Registry, from 2003 to 2019. Researchers sought to determine the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with Covid-19 and AIS.
Between January - May 2020, there were 174 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 and AIS. Each Covid-19 patient with AIS was matched and compared to a non-Covid-19 AIS patient based on a set of pre-specified factors including age, gender and stroke risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, cancer, previous stroke, smoking, obesity and dyslipidemia).
The final analysis included 330 patients total. In both patient groups, stroke severity was estimated with the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and stroke outcome was assessed by the modified Rankin score (mRS).
When AIS patients with Covid-19 were compared to non-Covid-19 patients, it was found that the former category had more severe strokes , higher risk for severe disability following stroke and were more likely to die of AIS.
The researchers noted there are several potential explanations for the relationship between Covid-19-associated strokes and increased stroke severity: "The increased stroke severity at admission in Covid-19 associated stroke patients compared to the non-Covid-19 cohort may explain the worse outcomes.
“The association highlights the urgent need for studies aiming to uncover the underlying mechanisms and is relevant for prehospital stroke awareness and in-hospital acute stroke pathways during the current and future pandemics."